HC Deb 26 March 1974 vol 871 cc255-8
8. Mr. Marten

asked the Secretary of State for Social Services if she will now publish the Sharp Report on vehicles for the disabled.

17. Mr. Luce

asked the Secretary of State for Social Services when she proposes to publish the report of Baroness Sharp's committee on the mobility of the disabled.

43. Mr. Carter-Jones

asked the Secretary of State for Social Services if she will place in the Library a copy of the Sharp report on vehicles for the disabled; if she will give some indication of her attitude regarding implementing the report and if she will make a statement.

Mr. Alfred Morris

The report was published yesterday and a copy has been placed in the Library. As regards imple- mentation, I would refer the hon. Members to the statement my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State made in the House yesterday.

Mr. Marten

Bearing in mind that mobility for the disabled is one of the really important matters in enabling them to lead a normal life, is not the Sharp Report a classic case in that, if accepted, its recommendations would provide aid where it was really needed and not distribute it unnecessarily widely? Does not the hon. Gentleman agree that the time has come for the House to accept the cost involved in the Sharp Report?

Mr. Morris

My aim was to see the earliest possible publication of the Sharp Report. My right hon. Friend has emphasised that there will be immediate and wide-ranging consultations. We intend not to talk at or to disabled people but to talk with them. I am certain that the important point made by the hon. Gentleman, whose record in this field is respected by both sides of the House, will be fully taken into account in the course of the consultation.

Mr. Carter-Jones

Is my hon. Friend aware that there is considerable concern on both sides of the House about paragraph 139 of the report which says that 13,500 people will lose the right to a four-wheel vehicle but will be able to get a three-wheel vehicle? Does he agree that the large class of people who will lose this right are not those who caused the economic crisis? Will he reconsider that paragraph of the report? Secondly, will my hon. Friend please have another look at the question of providing a mobility allowance for those who live alone? This is done in the Scandinavian countries, so why not here?

Mr. Morris

This is Baroness Sharp's report, not ours, but I give my hon. Friend the assurance that the points he has made will be taken fully into account in our consultations on the report. My right hon. Friend yesterday emphasised her concern on the second point made by my hon. Friend.

Mr. Luce

In considering this report, will the hon. Gentleman have a careful look at the criteria on elegibility for vehicles? Does he not accept that social isolation is as serious a problem for many disabled people as is, for example, the need to support a family or to take up a job?

Mr. Morris

I spend much of my time seeking to relieve severely disabled people of the scourge of social isolation. Certainly I will look very carefully at that point.

Mr. Tuck

Is my hon. Friend aware that there is grave disquiet among disabled people who use three-wheel vehicles, first that they are unsafe, second because garages do not want to know when they try to have them serviced, and third because they cannot take their families out in them'? Will he consider this and promise an early debate on the matter so that he can get ahead?

Mr. Morris

I cannot give any undertaking about a debate—that is a matter for my right hon. Friend the Leader of the House—but in the consultations that we shall be having we shall take full account of the safety aspects of the debate that we have had so far.

Mr. Money

While the consultations of which the Secretary of State spoke, which one welcomes, are going on with the disablement organisations, will the hon. Gentleman and his right hon. Friend bear in mind that Lady Sharp in her report spoke of mobility in the home as being even more important than the vehicle aspect? Will he have early negotiations with local authorities on that matter?

Mr. Morris

The report deals with many of the problems of disabled people other than their problems of outdoor mobility. I have taken careful note of the point and will be having consultations on this and other matters as early as possible.

Mr. Edwin Wainwright

Will my hon. Friend take into account the situation which arises when one of a couple is left alive who is incapable of driving a car, therefore loses the driver and has no allowance from the Government? Such people are then immobile and have to stay at home for lack of Government help.

Mr. Morris

My hon. Friend is referring to the problems of the disabled passenger, the person who is too severely disabled to drive himself. The Joint Committee on Mobility for the Disabled has been in touch with the Department on behalf of disabled passengers. This is a problem to which Lady Sharp has addressed herself in her report. It will be a very important matter in the consultations which are now proceeding.

Sir G. Howe

I know the Minister appreciates that the recommendations of Lady Sharp involve a change in principle because she suggests that cars should he available no longer specifically on the grounds of disability but by reference to the need of a disabled person as an income earner or an income contributor. I asked his right hon. Friend yesterday whether the additional cost of £3 million suggested by Lady Sharp represented the additional cost of meeting her recommendations, including the withdrawal from certain people of that which they now enjoy. Can the Minister give the House, either now or as soon as possible, an indication of the additional cost if existing facilities were continued and if the additional recommendations suggested by Lady Sharp were also to be taken up?

Mr. Morris

The question of take-up is begged by this Question. It would be hazardous for me to give any detailed figures on that subject. The figure of £3 million referred to yesterday by my right hon. Friend was that of Lady Sharp. The whole question of social criteria will of course be taken fully into account in our consultations. I do not think that I can go any further at this stage.