Chronically Sick and Disabled Persons Act (Hansard, 13 July 1982)

§ 11. Mr. Homewood
asked the Secretary of State for Social Services if he is taking further action to ensure full enforcement of the Chronically Sick and Disabled Persons Act; and if he will make a statement.

§ 20. Mr. Litherland
asked the Secretary of State for Social Services if he will be taking any action in the light of the seminar held on 20 May by the Royal Association for Disability and Rehabilitation on the results of the project to achieve full enforcement of the Chronically Sick and Disabled Persons Act.

§ Mr. Rossi
The implementation of section 2 of the Chronically Sick and Disabled Persons Act 1970 is a matter for the local authority in any particular case, but if I am provided with evidence that a local authority may not be performing its statutory duty I am ready to make inquiries about the position, as I have done in several cases, with gratifying results. No report of the RADAR seminar has been received by my Department and I am not aware of any firm conclusions reached.

§ Mr. Homewood
Has the Minister seen the reply to my right hon. Friend the Member for Manchester, Wythenshawe (Mr. Morris) of 8 June, which said that hospitalisation in Britain is costing about £26,000 per year per person? The disabled persons' entitlement under the 1970 Act does not remotely approach that figure. Therefore, is it not in the interests of Britain, and certainly in the interests of the disabled, that the Minister should ensure that the full benefits of the 1970 Act are applied? Is it not inhumane that he has not done so?

§ Mr. Rossi
As I have already said, whenever cases of breach of statutory duty are brought to my attention they are fully investigated. There have been several such cases investigated with gratifying results. Of course, rehabilita-tion rather than perpetual residence in hospital, and trying to move the mentally handicapped out of institutions, are desirable objectives which we are attempting continually to achieve.

§ Mr. Litherland
Will the Minister explain why his Department was not represented at the conference held by the Royal Association for Disability and Rehabilitation on 847 20 May? Does he not think that that absence was scandalous and that it highlights the Government's complete indifference?

§ Mr. Rossi
As far as I am aware, no invitation was received to attend the seminar. We received the report that preceded the seminar and that was debated in an Adjournment debate in the House on 26 April, when I gave the Government's reactions to it.

§ Mr. Rees-Davies
I congratulate the Minister on the excellent work that he has done for the disabled. Would he be good enough to draw the attention of those local authorities which are not carrying out their duties effectively to the excellent work done by other local authorities and thus, by precept, give them an incentive to improve their work?

§ Mr. Rossi
I believe that local authorities are aware of what is and what is not being done. The matter must be considered in the light of the report to which I have just referred. Tens of thousands of people are helped under the Act every year by local authorities. RADAR identified about 1,000 cases of those tens of thousands which it felt required investigation, and of those 1,000, 13 were referred to my Department for investigation.

§ Mr. Skinner
Is not the truth of the matter that the Government have deprived local authorities of sufficient money to carry out the Chronically Sick and Disabled Persons Act to the extent that they would like? Does he recall the recent answer to the parliamentary question which showed that the number of telephones going to old and disabled people under the Chronically Sick and Disabled Persons Act had dropped from 16,000 to 8,000 since the Government came into power? If the Government want to do something about it they should give authorities the money.

§ Mr. Rossi
Since the Government came into office there has been growth in real terms in expenditure on personal social services.

§ Mr. Alfred Morris
Will the Minister make a statement to the House about the leak in The Guardian last Thursday on the report of the expenditure steering group for personal social services to the effect that local authorities now face a cut of a further 28,000 jobs in their social services departments? How can the Minister possibly justify depriving 70,000 elderly and disabled people of their home helps? May the House now have a full statement instead of newspaper leaks?

§ Mr. Rossi
It is clear that the right hon. Gentleman did not see the rejoinder the next day by my hon. and learned Friend the Minister for Health, who made it plain that the report was totally inaccurate.