§ Mr. Carter-Jonesasked the Secretary of State for Social Services (1) what is his calculation of the number of handicapped people who have been helped under the provisions of Section 2 of the Chronically Sick and Disabled Persons Act 1970 since it came into operative effect;
(2) what is his calculation of the total number of handicapped people who have 45W been helped under and the provisions of the Chronically Sick and Disabled Persons Act 1970 since they came into operative effect.
§ Mr. Alfred MorrisIt is not possible for me to make a precise calculation. To give but one example, it is difficult even to estimate the large number of handicapped people who will have been helped by improved access facilities under the provisions of Sections 4–8 of the Act. They would possibly have to be numbered in millions. The scale of provision made under Section 2 of the Act is indicated in the following table:
Year ending 31st March Number of households assisted under Section 2 except holidays (estimated) Number of handicapped people assisted with a holiday (estimated) 1973 159,000 81,000 1974 199,000 90,000 1975 234,000 105,000 1976 300,000 101,000 Note: Except in the case of holidays, the information collected shows numbers of households, not people, who were helped under Section 2.
I understand that by the end of 1976 over 2,000 specially designed housing units for disabled people had been completed in keeping with the purpose of Section 3 of the Act; and that there are now well over 200,000 orange badge holders under the provisions of Section 21 of the Act.
This reply relates to beneficiaries of only eight sections of a very wide-ranging Act of Parliament. As my hon. Friend is aware, the Act is one of 29 sections; and I trust he will accept that it would be extremely difficult to maintain statistics of the total number of handicapped people who have been helped under all its provisions.