HC Deb 12 April 1905 vol 144 c1392
SIR WALTER FOSTER

To ask the President of the Local Government Board whether during the last few years the Bradford Guardians have reduced the number of applications for out-relief, and whether they have discouraged applications for medical out-relief by requiring parents (in the case of sick children) to attend before the board or a committee, or by making the relief on loan in the first instance, or by other means; and, if so, whether he would send a communication to the guardians recommending them to encourage applications for medical out-relief (by those unable to pay for medical advice) in the early stages of illness, and before infectious diseases have developed.

(Answered by Mr. Gerald Balfour.) I am aware that some few years since the Bradford Guardians adopted a policy of administration of out-relief, the effect of which has been to diminish the number of applications, but I have no information to show that the action of the guardians has been such as to render it necessary or desirable to send to them a communication of the kind referred to in the latter part of the Question.