43. Mr. RICHARDSONasked the Minister of Health what progress has been made in the drafting of the Bill to do away with the differentiation hitherto existing in the procedure of certification in the case of the so-called pauper as compared with the private patient?
§ Mr. GREENWOODIn the course of the consideration of the recommendations of the Royal Commission, notes were prepared on the Clauses that would be required to effect an assimilation of the procedure for the certification of rate-aided and private mental patients. But no steps have been taken towards the drafting of a Bill, because it is not practicable at present to undertake further lunacy legislation.
§ Mr. GREENWOODNo, I said that we were obtaining all the evidence, but I held out no hope of further legislation.
47. Mr. RICHARDSONasked the Minister of Health whether, in accordance with the suggestion of his Parliamentary Secretary, made in response to 692 the wishes of the Standing Committee on the Mental Treatment Bill, certain places will be set apart to give separate accommodation to voluntary boarders; will he state how many of the hospitals which have hitherto been Poor Law infirmaries will be utilised for this purpose, so that those who have voluntarily submitted themselves to treatment shall not be housed in the same institutions as the certified; and how many hospitals (particularising general or mental) have started outpatient clinics for mental cases?
§ Mr. GREENWOODI would remind my hon. Friend that the Mental Treatment Bill only received the Royal Assent on the 10th of this month, and does not come into operation until the 1st January, 1931. The Board of Control have already conferred with representatives of the local authorities in regard to some of the more important provisions of the Act; but until local authorities have had a reasonable opportunity of considering and determining the steps to be taken in their areas when the Act comes into operation, it is not possible to give the information asked for in this question.
Mr. RICHARDSONWill the right hon. Gentleman bring pressure to bear on the local authorities to carry this out?
§ Mr. GREENWOODMost certainly. We will do all that we can.