§ 67. Mr. BELLAMYasked the Minister of Health whether, as an indication of the progress made in breaking up the Poor Law, he will give the names of the local authorities who have made declarations under Section 5 of the Local Government Act, 1929, and of the special Acts under which these declarations have been made?
§ Mr. GREENWOODI will circulate a statement giving the particulars desired. My hon. Friend will appreciate, however, that the administrative schemes in which these declarations are contained were made by local authorities prior to the transfer of Poor Law functions, and declarations could therefore only be made by local authorities who were satisfied that as from the appointed day they would be in a position to carry out the whole of the services covered by the declaration under the special Act and without recourse to the Poor Law. The practical break up of the Poor Law after the appointed day is dependent upon administrative arrangements to be made by local authorities and can be effected by such arrangements without the actual making of a declaration. I am aware that this course of action is being adopted by many authorities and as an example of one of the methods adopted I may say that consent to the appropriation of 24 Poor Law Institutions belonging to 13 different authorities for the purposes of special Acts has already been given. The list of declarations in itself does not therefore give an accurate picture of the action taken and the results attained by local authorities.
§ Lieut.-Colonel FREMANTLEWill any report be given from time to time of the progress of this work, or shall we 622 have to wait for the annual report of the Ministry of Health?
§ Mr. GREENWOODI think that quite clearly this is a matter for an annual return, and it will appear in the Annual Report of the Department.
§ Following is the statement:
§ Declarations under Section 5 of the Local Government Act, 1929.
| Public Health Acts, 1875–1926. | |
| Barnsley County Borough Council. | Leeds. |
| Leicester. | |
| Birkenhead. | Lincoln. |
| Bournemouth. | Manchester. |
| Bradford. | Middlesbrough. |
| Brighton. | Newcastle-upon-Tyne. |
| Bristol | |
| Dewsbury. | Oldham. |
| Doncaster. | Oxford. |
| Eastbourne. | Reading. |
| Grimsby. | Rotherham. |
| Huddersfield. | Southampton. |
| Ipswich. | Stoke-on-Trent. |
| Mental Deficiency Acts, 1913–1929. | |
| East Sussex County Council. | Ipswich. |
| Leicester. | |
| Barnsley County Borough Council. | Lincoln. |
| Middlesbrough. | |
| Birkenhead. | Newcastle-upon-Tyne. |
| Bradford. | |
| Brighton. | Sheffield. |
| Eastbourne. | South Shields. |
| Halifax. | West Bromwich. |
| Huddersfield. | York. |
| Maternity and Child Welfare Act, 1918. | |
| Cheshire County Council. | Huddersfield. |
| Ipswich. | |
| Hertford. | Leicester. |
| East Sussex. | Lincoln. |
| Barnsley County Borough Council. | Manchester. |
| Middlesbrough. | |
| Barrow. | Newcastle-upon-Tyne. |
| Bath. | |
| Birkenhead. | Oldham. |
| Bournemouth. | Reading. |
| Bradford. | Rotherham. |
| Brighton. | Salford. |
| Bristol. | Southampton. |
| Derby County Borough. | South Shields. |
| Stoke-on-Trent. | |
| Dewsbury. | Wakefield. |
| Eastbourne. | West Bromwich. |
| Gateshead. | West Hartlepool. |
| Halifax. |
§ N.B.—It must be understood that declarations are made in respect of particular services as defined in the scheme of the local authority, and a declaration actually made under a special Act in a particular scheme may extend either to the whole or only to a specified portion of the services in respect of which such declaration may have been made. The precise scope of the declarations included in the above list varies therefore in a considerable degree but these variations do not lend themselves readily to reproduction in a tabular statement and can only be tested by reference to the particular scheme.