HC Deb 11 April 1986 vol 95 cc533-4 1.15 pm
Mr. Newton

I beg to move amendment No. 10, in page 8, line 4, leave out from '1970,' to end of line 7 and insert—

  1. (a) for "any other of those services" there shall be "any other service provided by the authority (whether under any such arrangements or not)"; and
  2. (b) at the end there shall be inserted "and of any service provided by any other authority or organisation which in the opinion of the authority is so relevant and of which particulars are in the authority's possession.".'.
The background to the amendment is that by amending section 1(2)(b) of the Chronically Sick and Disabled Persons Act 1970, clause 10 of the Bill will require local authorities to inform a recipient of services under that Act, and of other services provided by the authority, Government Department, public body or voluntary organisation which are considered relevant to that person's needs. They already have a duty to provide information about services provided under the 1970 Act.

I need hardly say that the Government are sympathetic to the objectives of the clause. However, we have reservations on two points. First, to place a statutory requirement on local authorities to obtain information from a number of other agencies on the services available could represent a substantial additional administrative burden, which would be difficult in itself. Secondly, the clause as drafted appears to take no account of the problems which could arise for a local authority given that proposed statutory commitment, if the information that it needed was not provided by the other organisations from whom it would necessarily need to obtain it. Therefore, we propose to amend clause 10 so that local authorities will be required to provide information about other services provided by the same authority, and about other services provided by other organisations which the local authority considers relevant and information about which is available to it. I hope that the House will think that that is a reasonable compromise and a helpful advance.

Amendment agreed to.

Forward to