§ 44. Mr. GRUNDYasked the Minister of Health whether his attention has been called to the resolution of the Berkshire, Buckinghamshire, and Oxfordshire joint vagrancy committee that casual wards should only be on main roads and at distances of 15 to 20 miles apart; whether it is proposed to give effect to this proposal; and whether his Department has taken any steps in the matter?
Mr. CHAMBERLAINI would refer the hon. Member to the answer given to a question on this subject by the hon. Member for King's Norton (Mr. Dennison) on the 23rd ultimo.
§ 47. Mr. GRUNDYasked the Minister of Health the number of casual wards which supply mattresses to vagrants, the number of those which supply hammocks, and the number of those where neither mattresses nor hammocks are supplied; and whether it has been reported to him that, owing to the condition of the hammocks, the vagrants in some casual wards prefer to sleep on the bare floor?
Mr. CHAMBERLAINThere are no recent statistics available to show the kind of sleeping accommodation provided in the casual wards throughout the country, but in 1925 there were 83 unions in which nothing but hammocks were provided, and 17 unions in which neither beds, bunks nor hammocks were provided. There are now only three unions in this last class, and in these three unions improvements are under consideration. I have received no adverse reports on the condition of the hammocks supplied in any casual ward.