§ Mr. LANSBURYasked the Minister of Labour, as representing the Ministry of Health, how many ex-service men were accommodated in casual wards and institutions for vagrants in Scotland, Wales, and England during the week ending 31st October: what tasks these men were called upon to perform before being granted their liberty, and what food was supplied to them: how many ex-service men or dependants of ex-service men were in receipt of institutional Poor Law relief in workhouses, infirmaries, hospitals, schools, mental asylums, or other places controlled or paid for by Poor Law authorities within 1231W the three Kingdoms during the same period; how many ex-service men, or dependants of ex-service men, were in receipt of out-door relief from Poor Law-authorities in the three Kingdoms during the same period; how many ex-service men now in mental asylums chargeable to Poor Law authorities were formerly chargeable to the Minister of Pensions; and whether the Minister of Health has given his sanction and approval to the transference of those men from the national organisation and funds dealing with those who suffered during the War to the Poor Law authorities, thereafter to be treated and styled as paupers?
§ Major BOYD-CARPENTERMy right hon. Friend regrets that the detailed information asked for by the hon. Member is not available. As regards the last two parts of the question, I would refer the hon. Member to the reply given by the Minister of Pensions on the 30th November to the hon. Member for West Bromwich (Mr. F. Roberts), from which he will see that the number of the men to whom he refers cannot be definitely stated until the appeals which have been lodged have been decided by the Pensions Appeal Tribunal. I would point out that the present arrangement: is consequential on the Warrant which was approved by Parliament in 1018, whereby cases of the kind in question were to receive treatment at the cost of public funds for the period of the War and one year thereafter.
§ Mr. F. ROBERTSasked the Minister of Labour, as representing the Ministry of Health, whether he is aware that instructions have been issued that relief is not to "granted by boards of guardians to applicants living with relatives, and that when relief has been applied for by a brother living with a War widow the pension of the latter and her children has been taken into account; and can measures be taken at once to end this system?
§ Major BOYD CARPENTERNo special instruction to the effect suggested has been issued by my right hon. Friend's Department. Boards of guardians are, however, required By law to take into account all the means available for the support of an applicant for relief and his dependants.