HC Deb 27 January 1976 vol 904 cc234-6
9. Mr. Carter-Jones

asked the Secretary of State for Social Services if she will publish the statistics relating to services provided under Section 2 of the Chronically Sick and Disabled Persons Act 1970 by local authorities in the last financial year; and if she will make a statement.

The Under-Secretary of State for Health and Social Security (Mr. Alfred Morris)

As the Answer is in the form of a table of figures, I will circulate the information in the Official Report. The tables showing provision by individual local authorities are being printed and copies will be placed in the Library of the House shortly. My hon. Friend will be pleased to learn that in 1974–75 there was an increase of nearly 18 per cent. in the number of households helped under Section 2 of the Act compared with the previous year.

Mr. Carter-Jones

Will my hon. Friend take it from me that we are delighted that there has been an increase in average spending, but that this is an average figure and means that some local authorities have done extremely well and that others have done very badly? Will he congratulate those local authorities which have done well under Section 2. Will he please remind the laggards that this section went through without a vote in the House and with the full approval of Parliament? Will he bring that home to the laggard authorities?

Mr. Morris

I am grateful to my hon. Friend. The whole House appreciates my hon. Friend's active, sustained and wholly genuine concern to ensure full and humane implementation of the Act. He will appreciate that I am deeply concerned also to see that the Act is applied in the interests of all disabled people. The figures reveal differences in provision. The increase of 18 per cent., however, is notable. We must also bear in mind that 136,000 names of severely disabled people were added to the registers of local authorities in 1974–75. This was a notable achievement by many local authorities in widely different parts of Britain.

Mr. Boscawen

Do not the present financial restrictions render much of the very desirable practical help which the Act obliges local authorities to undertake ineffective and impossible for many local authorities? Would it not be better if the Secretary of State considered an amendment to the Act so as to narrow the field in which local authorities are obliged to undertake these desirable measures so that the authorities can attend to the most vital areas of need, such as help in education for austistic children, much more thoroughly than now?

Mr. Morris

We have no plans whatever to amend the Act. We have made the mandatory nature of Section 2 clear to local authorities. Our legal advice is that once a local authority accepts that need exists in respect of one of the services listed in the section, it is incumbent upon it to make arrangements to meet that need. In the present economic situation there are, of course, difficulties about balancing the discharge of the duty with due exercise of financial restraint. There has, however, been a remarkable amount of progress in the past year. There was an article in The Times yesterday showing what superb results can be achieved by local authorities. I hope that all right hon. and hon. Members will read that article.

Following is the information:

Form of Assistance Number of households helped in 1974–75 Comparable figures for 1973–74
Telephones 22,000 21,800
Attachments 1,600 1,100
Rentals 47,100 28,800
Other communication equipment 2,000 1,600
Television installed 2,200 2,500
Licences 16,000 6,500
Radio 500 900
Other personal aids 159,400 142,500
Adaptations—
Private, Minor 16,900 17,500
Private, Major 1,900 1,600
Local Authority 22,500 20,000
Net total* 233,600† 198,500
* Some households received more than one form of help.
† Including estimates made for local authorities unable to supply information.