55. Mr. W. Joseph Stewartasked the Minister of Health in view of the forthcoming revision of the block-grant formula, whether a special weighting based on the number of persons relieved by the public assistance committee will be applied to the calculation of the block grant; and whether he has taken into consideration the question of granting addiional money above the block grant to be devoted entirely to those local authorities with an excessive public assistance rate?
§ Sir K. WoodI must ask the hon. Member to await the report of the investigation into the method of distribution of block grants which I hope to lay before Parliament shortly.
Mr. StewartWill the right hon. Gentleman take into consideration the fact that the Poor Law rate in Durham County is three times the average rate throughout the country?