HC Deb 26 May 1960 vol 624 cc667-8
25. Mr. D. Griffiths

asked the Minister of Education the number of full-time county school dentists in the West Riding of Yorkshire in each year from 1954 up to the latest available date.

The Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry of Education (Mr. Kenneth Thompson)

I would refer the hon. Member to the Answer given on 19th May to the hon. Member for Pontefract (Mr. Sylvester).

Mr. Griffiths

While thanking the hon. Gentleman for that reply, which he gave to my hon. Friend the Member for Pontefract (Mr. Sylvester) and which was totally unsatisfactory, may I ask him to ask his right hon. Friend at least to do something about this matter rather than to offer us platitudes? Is it not a shocking disgrace that in the twentieth century in the West Riding of Yorkshire, which is proclaimed to be one of the most progressive local authorities, there are many places in which there is not a one day a week school dental service?

Mr. Thompson

I fully endorse the hon. Member's description of the West Riding authority. It is doing its best to recruit more dentists for the school dental service, but it is faced with the problem, common to all authorities at the moment, that dentists are very hard indeed to come by.