§ 2.46 p.m.
§ [The Question was as follows:
§ To ask His Majesty's Government whether in view of the recent rises in the price of coal they propose to increase the standard allowances of the Assistance Board.]
§ LORD KERSHAWMy Lords, any change in the National Assistance scales is a matter in the first instance for the National Assistance Board. The Board have the matter under constant review and can be relied upon to give due weight to the effect of recent changes in the price of coal.
LORD SALTOUNI am obliged to the noble Lord for that answer. Arising out of it, may I ask whether the Assistance Board makes notional weekly budgets to support and justify the scales laid down?
§ LORD KERSHAWMy Lords, with his usual courtesy, the noble Lord has been good enough to let me have a sight of that supplementary question. The answer is that the Board have access to many sources of information about the cost of living, including that derived from actual household budgets sent to them by outside people. But I understand that they have not felt that purely notional budgets of the kind suggested would add materially to the information at their disposal.
LORD SALTOUNI am obliged to the noble Lord for his answer, but arising out of it perhaps he will allow me to ask him this question. Under the old system that 302 has been abolished the subject had a Common Law right to have his necessities relieved. In default of exact information, how can the Government be sure that the new system is an improvement on the old and that all necessities are in fact met? Would the noble Lord allow me to ask one further question—namely, whether the old Common Law right of an action at law that every subject had in the event of failure on the part of the authorities to relieve his necessities, will exist against the Assistance Board; or has it been swept away by recent legislation?
§ LORD KERSHAWMy Lords, the last part of the question raises a legal point and is such that I feel it would be unwise for me to deal with it without advice. As to the first part of the question, there is no doubt that the present method of relieving the destitute is infinitely superior to that which existed before the National Assistance Board came into operation. I would ask the noble Lord to look at a report which appeared recently in the Manchester Guardian and which suggests definitely that at the present time there is no reason why aged people, especially, for whom the noble Lord is particularly anxious, should suffer hardship in the manner they did in former times.
LORD SALTOUNMy Lords, I am obliged to the noble Lord for what he has just said. With regard to my second question, will he accept it as a Question not for oral answer and circulate a reply in the proceedings of the House? Because this is a matter of great public importance.
§ LORD KERSHAWMy Lords, the noble Lord will be aware that there was a Common Law right under the old Poor Law. It was exercised only once—I think in 1865, if my memory is correct—but even that case was not won by the plaintiff. As I have stated, I am unable to say whether the Common Law right still exists. If the noble Lord will be good enough to put down a non-oral Question on that point, I shall be glad to obtain a considered reply for him. However, if he prefers, I will see that he has a reply from the Department.
LORD SALTOUNMy Lords, I should like to ask whether His Majesty's Government consider that a Common Law right can be lost by non-user—for instance, because the need does not arise.