§ 13. Mr. BUCHANANasked the Secretary of State for Scotland if he has consulted his medical advisers on the effect of the present scales of relief paid by Glasgow public assistance committees to persons on able-bodied relief, particularly on the health of the children concerned; and if he is satisfied that the scales paid to widows with children can allow for proper nourishment in cases recently submitted to him?
§ Mr. JOHNSTONThe primary responsibility for the maintenance of the health of the child population of Glasgow rests upon the corporation. The Department of Health for Scotland are, however, at present engaged on an inquiry in the schools of the four large cities in Scotland and of the county of Lanark in order to ascertain the physical condition of children whose parents have been unemployed for a considerable time. As regards the latter part of the question, the adequacy of the poor relief at present being paid in the cases of two widows about whom my hon. Friend wrote on the 218 22nd October will be considered immediately on receipt by the Department of Health of the statutory complaint which the Poor Law Act entitles them to make. As explained in my reply to my hon. Friend, the Department have no power to prescribe a scale.