DICAPPED PERSON (TRANPORT) (Hansard, 12 July 1962)

§ Mr. Fergus Montgomery (Newcastle-upon-Tyne, East)

I will not detain the House for very long. I am very grateful to have the opportunity of this Adjournment debate on Gordon Hall, who is a constituent of mine. I have already brought this case to the attention of the Ministry of Heath, and indeed I sent the Ministry all the details of this problem. I regret to say that I did not receive a reply from the Ministry until the beginning of this week. I hope that I shall be forgiven if I seem cynical, but it is rather strange that, I having announced that I was having an Adjournment debate on this subject, the reply miraculously appeared. I hope that my hon. Friend will agree that eight weeks in which to reply is a very long time, and to the people who have been waiting for this reply I suppose every day seemed like a year, so the eight weeks which they waited must have seemed like an eternity.

This is a rather tragic case, and by this Adjournment debate I have the opportunity of ventilating it to try to ensure some justice at any rate for this boy and his parents. I say "this boy" but he is in fact a young man because he is now 20. Since he was seven he has suffered from muscular dystrophy, and his parents, who have always been thrifty, hard-working people, have always looked after him. He did well at school. When he left school he got a job in an office not far from his home, and this job was very important to him because it gave him a new interest in life.

He had to be taken to work and collected at the end of the day. His father had a car and did this willingly. In all probability this procedure would have gone on indefinitely except that at Christmas of last year the father developed a thrombosis and was told by his doctor that he must not lift this boy in or out of the car any more. This 1672 was a tremendous blow to the family, but, nothing daunted, they sold the car and bought an Austin Mini van, and a neighbour of theirs, who was very proficient, set about designing a new van which would be a suitable vehicle for taking this boy to and from work.

Often when someone has to use an invalid chair to be taken from place to place certain difficulties are presented because the person has to be lifted from the chair into a car and out of the car into the chair on arrival at the destination. The man who designed this van, to whom great credit is due, decided in his design to get rid of this particular difficulty because it proved distressing for the invalid and exhausting for the person who had to do the necessary lifting. The converted van which Gordon Hall now has avoids these things because there are windows all round the sides, the roof has been heightened by 15 in. and the floor lowered by 9 in. The floor has been reinforced with steel and has railway runners on it Which guide the invalid chair in. Inside the van there are steel fitments and a special attachment is fitted to bath sides of the invalid chair. The fitments and the attachment all link up and thereby keep the chair stationary while it is in the van. With the added help of a safety belt, this ensures that the boy has every protection. To gat the invalid chair into the van there is a double steel ramp which, once the chair has been pushed into the van, folds up and forms a number plate.

This is a step forward which could be useful for disabled people all over the country. I am not a technical expert and I am certain that my explanation of all this is not as comprehensible as it should be, but I have some pictures of the van which I shall pass to my hon. Friend because I am sure that she and the members of the staff of the Ministry of Health could find great interest in them. Who knows, by this van we may be able to do something which will be a tremendous step forward for disabled people all over the country. For the Hall family this new van has been a tremendous asset. It has certainly made life much easier for all of them.

1673 So far I have covered only the happy side of this story. The sad part is that, having spent a considerable amount of money on the van and its conversion, the family are faced with a sizeable bill from the Customs and Excise Department. Of course we must be on our guard against people trying to dodge the payment of tax. Rules were made at one stage when people bought vans and made them into shooting brakes, thereby stealing a march on their neighbours. This loophole was deliberately stopped by the Government, but in this case the Halls have not done the conversion for pleasure but out of their necessity. I submit that this van is really an ambulance in miniature.

If Gordon Hall had been capable of driving, the Ministry would have given him some form of three-Wheeled motorised transport which would have cost about £300. Not only would the Ministry have given him that, but it would have been responsible for maintaining it as long as he had it. The Ministry must look very closely at this problem. Although it does a great deal for people who can drive, it seems to do nothing for those whose condition is such that they cannot drive. I therefore put it to my hon. Friend that, if the Ministry of Health can do very little more to help this boy, perhaps she could use her charm on the Treasury. I hope that for once it may be humane and look at this problem sympathetically.

This is certainly a worthy and deserving case, and I am quite sure that no one would begrudge some assistance in this case and in similar cases. It is a worthy case, because these people have always tried to help themselves. A few years ago, they sold their house because the stairs were becoming more difficult for the boy to manage. They bought a bungalow, and had to put in certain extras which cost money but which were, in effect, necessities. They had to have a sunken bath for the boy to use. They had to have specially wide doors, and ramps for the wheeled chair to travel on.

I am quite sure that my hon. Friend will appreciate Mrs. Hall's feelings when the local office of the Ministry told her that if they had been told at that time, some financial assistance would have 1674 been given towards those necessary extras. It seems that, all too often, the wasters and spongers who know every single dodge and trick of the trade get everything that is going, while the thrifty, hard-working people who suddenly hit a bad patch find that they have to struggle on alone.

I wonder whether my hon. Friend could do something to ensure that all disabled people are made fully aware of all the services and assistance available to them because, as a nation, we have a duty to try to do whatever we can for those unfortunate enough to have lost the use of their limbs.

I thank my hon. Friend for listening so patiently to what I have had to say. I am quite certain that if the decision rested with her alone, I should not be speaking in vain, but I would ask her to use her influence with whichever Department she can, and I hope that tonight she can at least give me some news that will be of advantage to the Hall family.

§ The Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry of Health (Miss Edith Pitt)

If I may say so, my hon Friend the Member for Newcastle-upon-Tyne, East (Mr. Montgomery) put his case very well. He referred to it at the outset as a tragic case, but one should, I think, at once link that with something he said later about these worthy people and the way in which they have helped themselves.

I will deal first with the point about delay in dealing with my hon. Friend's initial approach to us because, although it is not strictly relevant, I admit his right to raise it in this debate. My hon. Friend wrote to my colleague, the Joint Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry of Pensions and National Insurance—perhaps because he felt there might have been same responsibility in that Department arising from the fact that Mrs. Hall had visited its local office. As there was no such responsibility, the Ministry of Pensions and National Insurance passed his letter to us on 15th May, which was four days after he wrote it. At the same time, that Ministry advised my hon. Friend that it was transferring the matter to us.

We, in turn, put inquiries in hand to find out whether there was any way in which the Department could assist. I 1675 should explain, though my hon. Friend knows it, that, prior to his approaches, Mr. Hall had been supplied with a wheel-chair, and the one way that was open to us to try to help him further was to consider whether he was eligible for one of our invalid tricycles. It was therefore necessary to consider afresh whether he could drive such a vehicle, and we had to have him medically examined to ascertain whether he would be able to control any form of powered transport.

That medical examination took place on 1st June. Then all details had to be reported to us at the Ministry in London, from Norcross. I do not have to tell my hon. Friend that Norcross is in Lancashire, but it is where all questions in relation to invalid vehicles are dealt with centrally. It therefore takes a little longer for papers to pass to and from London. In the meantime I sent my hon. Friend an interim reply on 7th June telling him that inquiries were in progress. There followed the break of Whit-sun. I do not want to raise this as any prime cause of delay, but it happened and involved some delay.

Finally, with all the facts, I was able to reply to my hon. Friend fully on 4th July. I am sorry that this correspondence took longer than I would have liked. Unfortunately, as I explained to my hon. Friend in this reply of 4th July, the report following the medical examination left very little doubt that Mr. Hall was quite unable to drive himself. It is true, as my hon. Friend has said, that had he been able to drive he would most probably have qualified for a tricycle. The tricycle, of course, would have remained the property of my Ministry and we should have been responsible for its maintenance.

Again I must explain, as I have explained previously in the House when this question of the provision of transport for disabled people has been debated, that the powers to do what we do are contained in Section 3 (1, b) of the National Heath Service Act, 1946, which provides that it shall be the duty of the Minister to provide throughout England and Wales, to such extent as he considers necessary to meet all reasonable requirements…medical, nursing and other services required at or for the purposes of hospitals. 1676 This means that we can regard an invalid tricycle as an appliance required at or for the purposes of hospitals. But that power cannot be extended to provide a vehicle in the ordinary sense of the word. It does not permit us to provide to National Health Service patients a motor car or to contribute to the maintenance of a private car. Therefore, we have no powers which would enable us to help with the conversion of the Austin Mini van purchased by the father in this case.

I am very interested to learn of the conversion which has been done to the van. I think that the Halls are fortunate to have such a good neighbour who seems to have made an excellent jab of converting the van. I shall be most interested to borrow the photographs from my hon. Friend, and certainly I am sure that my Department will be glad to study the conversion made here in order to enable Mr. Hall to travel in the van. I am glad, too, that it has given easier mobility to this young man. But I am afraid that there is no way in which we can contribute to the cost of the vehicle which enables him to be carried as a passenger.

My hon. Friend mentioned the question of Purchase Tax payment involved in the installation of windows in this commercial vehicle. As my hon. Friend will appreciate, this is a matter for my right hon. and learned Friend the Chancellor of the Exchequer, but I understand that inquiries are being made into the matter on his behalf and that he will be writing to my hon. Friend when the inquiries are complete.

I come now to the powers of local authorities to help with welfare services for the physically handicapped, because this is relevant both to applications for assistance with the cost of converting the van and conversions to the bungalow which I understand the family moved into some two years ago.

In the matter of the welfare services for the physically handicapped, Section 29 of the National Assistance Act, 1948, gives powers to local authorities, county and county borough councils to provide welfare services for the blind, the deaf or dumb and other persons who are substantially and permanently handicapped by illness, injury, or congenital deformity 1677 that is, the general classes of the handicapped. Under the terms of the National Insurance Act, welfare services are provided by authorities in accordance with schemes approved by the Minister.

The Newcastle County Borough Council has had an approved scheme for the provision of welfare services for the general class of the physically handicapped since 1952. The Newcastle scheme, in common with those made by other authorities, follows closely the model scheme issued by the Ministry. Under its terms certain provisions are mandatory but others are permissive. Under the permissive powers contained in clause 5 (5) of the scheme, the authority may assist handicapped persons in arranging for the carrying out of any works of adaptation in their homes or the provision of any additional facilities designed to secure the greater comfort or convenience of such persons and, if the council so determines, to defray any expense involved in carrying out such works or the provision of such facilities.

It is considered by the Ministry that under this Clause the authority would have power to assist in adaptations made to improve the van to enable Mr. Hall to be wheeled in and out of it. It is understood by the chief welfare officer of Newcastle County Borough that his council would also be likely to take this view. The powers of the clause are widely used by the council to assist handicapped people but it must be appreciated that it is entirely for the council to decide how far and in what circumstances it should exercise the powers contained in this and other permissive clauses of its scheme.

I understand that Mr. Gordon Hall's father wrote to the council in February this year applying for a grant from the council towards the cost of adaptations to the Mini van to accommodate his severely handicapped son. It was understood that the intention was that the father, who had recently been seriously ill, should drive his son daily to and from his work. The council looked very carefully into this application but came to the conclusion that no grant should he made towards the cost of the conversion since the state of health of Mr. 1678 Gordon Hall's father was such that he could not render any assistance which might be required by his son. The council, for this reason, took the view that it was not appropriate that Mr. Hall's father should participate in any way in conveying his son to and from work.

The chief welfare officer of the council got in touch at once with the regional office of the Ministry of Labour to ascertain whether that office could assist in the provision of transport for Mr. Hall to and from his work. We understand that the Ministry of Labour readily agreed to do this and to pay £1 10s. a week towards the weekly cost of taxis amounting in all to £2 10s. We have been informed by the Ministry of Labour that this arrangement continued until 13th June when they were notified by Mr. Hall that a taxi was no longer required since the family had its own converted vehicle in which he could be transported.

My hon Friend also raised the question of adaptations to the bungalow and said that Mrs. Hall had been told by the local office of my Ministry that had she gone to that office earlier she could have been given help with the cost of these conversions. I feel that there must have been some misunderstanding because, again, my Ministry has no power to do this, but I understand that it could have been done by the local authority although it seems that no application was made to the authority. I am sorry that the Halls have not been able to obtain help in this way and that in turn there is no way in which I can help them from the Ministry.

I want to assure my hon. Friend that both in my Department and, as I know from inquiries I have made, in the county borough council there is the utmost sympathy and understanding with Mr. Gordon Hall and his family. We in the Ministry are not able to do any more than the little we have already done, and the decision here is entirely one for the council to make in the light of its knowledge of the circumstances of the family.