§ 8. Mr. Kenneth Bakerasked the Chancellor of the Exchequer whether he will add the self-adjustable bed for invalids 276 made by H. Bickerton Limited to the list of those items that are exempt from Purchase Tax, since this Company sells this bed only to invalids, will change its sales literature to state this, and is prepared to restrict deliveries to cases approved by a doctor or a local health authority.
§ Mr. DiamondNo, Sir. I can only repeat what my hon. and learned Friend said on 15th October, namely that it would not be practicable to make an exemption for invalid beds, still less for an individual type of bed made by one particular company.—[Vol. 770, c. 191.]
§ Mr. BakerDoes the right hon. Gentleman recall that this is the second occasion on which I have raised this matter, and that on the first occasion it was suggested that the firm sold beds to the fit as well as to the disabled? Now that the firm has said that it sells beds only to the disabled and will sell beds only to the disabled, why cannot the Government be a little more humane and sensible, since these beds are for near-paralysed people who would otherwise have to go into hospital?
§ Mr. DiamondI am sympathetic to the hon. Gentleman's approach, and particularly so as this is known as the Bickerton-Marples self-adjusting bed—
§ Mr. Diamond—but it is the usual problem of the purpose to which the bed is put. I take it that the hon. Gentleman refers to people of ill health. I can imagine beds being supplied for that purpose and also being used by people of good health who would be only too happy, for a variety of reasons, to use beds which are both comfortable and self-adjusting.