Motor Cars and Invalid Tricycles (Hansard, 27 June 1955)

§ 38. Mr. Simmons
asked the Minister of Health the number of borderline cases of war pensioners applying for motor cars that have been rejected in the years 1951, 1952, 1953, and 1954, respectively.

§ The Minister of Health (Mr. Iain Macleod)
As these cases cannot be defined, I regret I am not able to supply this information.

§ Mr. Simmons
Could the Minister then supply this information? Are all the 2,000 cars that were provided under the Labour Government still available to ex-Service men? If any of them have become unavailable owing to mechanical defects, have they been replaced? How many cars have this Government themselves provided?

§ Mr. Macleod
The limit of the number has remained where it has always been, the figure of 2,000 which the hon. Member mentioned. I gave detailed figures of the supply in HANSARD a month or two ago. Perhaps the hon. Member would put that question down, when I will give him the latest information we have.

§ Mr. Page
Will my right hon. Friend reconsider the whole policy of supplying these glorified bath-chairs for disabled people? Would it not be better and cheaper to supply them with a normal type of car properly adapted?

§ Mr. Macleod
There is another Question on the Paper a little later more closely concerned with that matter.

§ 39. Mr. Hale
asked the Minister of Health the number of cars for disabled persons provided by his Department in the last 12 months to the most recent convenient date for computation and in the corresponding three previous annual periods, showing the numbers allotted to persons disabled by war injuries and the numbers allotted to persons disabled by industrial and other injuries.

§ Mr. Iain Macleod
Cars, as distinct from invalid tricycles, are supplied only to disabled war pensioners, and 82 were supplied during the year ending 31st May, 1955. The numbers issued in the corresponding periods from 1952 to 1954 were 247, 96 and 73, respectively.

§ Mr. Hale
I am sure that the right hon. Gentleman is aware of the need for extending this service to other seriously disabled people. In view of the very small number that were issued and the very large number which remain unallocated, would the right hon. Gentleman reconsider the Government's policy and whether these cars could be supplied to people on the basis of the severity of their disability without regard to the origin of the disability?

§ Mr. Macleod
It has always been accepted that cars should be allocated to disabled war pensioners, and that distinction has always been maintained. The numbers were naturally higher in the earlier years of the scheme when claims were first made. As far as I know, the number of cars we have is adequate to meet that need on the present basis.

§ Mr. Rees-Davies
Are these cars solo cars or are they cars in which passengers can be taken? I ask because I have had a number of cases brought to my notice of these war-disabled men who have solo cars and who cannot drive with their families. The other conveyance, the tricycle, is also a solo vehicle. It would seem that there is a case here to be looked at, to see whether vehicles could be supplied which will accommodate three or four persons so that the family of a disabled man who has one can go with him. There is a circular outstanding saying that these cars are not allowed for use by any other members of a man's family. Would my right hon. Friend look at that question at the same time?

§ Mr. Macleod
I know of these points. I think it is fairer to the hon. Member who has Question 43 down to take them on that Question.

§ 43. Mr. Gibson
asked the Minister of Health whether he will consider in suitable cases providing two-seated invalid motors in which the man's wife can ride with him.

§ Mr. Iain Macleod
I am not satisfied that the additional expenditure involved would be justified.

§ Mr. Gibson
Will the right hon. Gentleman look at this further? There cannot be a large number of cases. However, it causes a man who has an invalid car, which is a solo one, very great unhappiness if he is never able to go out in it 29 with his wife and family. It seems to me that the provision of a little additional accommodation in these cars to enable a man to take his wife out with him sometimes would be a piece of humanitarianism, which, I should have thought, the right hon. Gentleman would at least have been prepared to consider.

§ Mr. Macleod
Indeed I am prepared to consider it, but successive Ministers have looked at this problem and have always turned this down on the ground of cost, not only the initial cost but, more important, the maintenance costs.