HC Deb 28 July 1938 vol 338 cc3287-8
42. Mr. Porritt

asked the Parliamentary Secretary to the Board of Education the number of subnormal or mentally deficient children of school age in the county of Lancaster in 1938 and 1929, respectively, and their proportion to the school population in those years?

The Parliamentary Secretary to the Board of Education (Mr. Kenneth Lindsay)

The number of children ascertained to be mentally defective within the meaning of the Education Act, 1921, was on 31st December, 1929, 4,848, or o.67 per cent. of the average number on the registers of the public elementary schools in the county, and on 31st December, 1937 (the latest date for which figures are available) 3,702, or 0.56 per cent. of the average number on the registers. These figures do not include children of school age notified to the mental deficiency authority as ineducable or on other grounds.

Mrs. Tate

In view of those very alarming figures, is it proposed to set up a committee to inquire into the desirability of the sterilisation of the unfit?

Mr. Lindsay

I would point out that the figures are not conclusive evidence.