HC Deb 26 February 1959 vol 600 cc1275-6
6. Mrs. Mann

asked the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will state the amount of grant to be given in the next financial year to the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents for furthering the work of home safety; how long the grant will continue; and what conditions are attached.

Mr. R. A. Butler

As respects the first two parts of the Question, I would refer the hon. Member to the Answer which I gave to her Question on 27th November last. The grant is intended to enable the Society to carry on while efforts are made to find support for it from other quarters and to bridge the gap between whatever sums it obtains in the next financial year as a result of such efforts and the sum of £1,500. My right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Scotland is making a similar grant on similar conditions.

Mrs. Mann

I am informed that the Secretary of State for Scotland has made a similar grant with no strings at all. A grant of £1,500 for Scotland surely ought to indicate a grant of ten times that amount for England, whereas England is receiving less than £1,500. Is the Home Secretary aware that the Minister of Transport gave the Society £68,000 for propaganda on road accidents? Deaths from home accidents far outnumber those on the roads. Does not this miserable £1,500, less deductions, indicate a complete lack of reality in the circumstances?

Mr. Butler

I am glad to note the hon. Lady's solicitude in matters which affect England. It was suggested that there should be a meeting between the Parliamentary Home Safety Group, my right hon. Friend and myself, in which the hon. Lady would take part. If she would like to renew that invitation we might have a talk on the matter.

Mr. Marquand

The Home Safety Group will be glad to meet the right hon. Gentleman. Is he aware that, following the"Guard that Fire"campaign which he inaugurated with the support of hon. Members on both sides of the House, widespread interest was aroused throughout the country? Does he know that people are now forming committees everywhere and want to carry on the campaign but find themselves very much hampered because the Society, due to the right hon. Gentleman's very small grant, is unable to provide the staff to hold all the lectures and demonstrations that it wants to?

Mr. Butler

Owing to the initiative of the London County Council a very useful exhibition was held, which I opened and attended. I am glad that there is increased interest in the matter. An adjudication has been made for this year, and we had better make the best of it. I agree about the importance of the subject to which the right hon. Gentleman refers.