§ Lieut.-Colonel HORLICKasked the Chancellor of the Exchequer what is the total cost of our public health services, including that of National Health Insurance and the grants-in-aid for services administered by the Ministry of Health and the Board of Education; what proportion is paid by the State and what by the local authorities; and whether he can give an estimate of the cost of the proposed revision of the Public Health Acts that is under consideration?
Mr. GRAHAMThe statements below give the figures asked for in the first two parts of the question. As regards the last part of the question, the revision of the Public Health Acts, which is now under consideration, is intended primarily as a preliminary to consolidation, and there is no reason at present to think that any amendments will result in a material addition to the cost of local administration.
955W
STATEMENT A. The latest available figures as to the expenditure (other than out of loans) by local authorities in England and Wales on public health services (excluding services carried on by local education authorities) relate to the year 1921–22 and are summarised in the following table:— Services. (1) Expenditure (other than out of loans). (2) Sources from which expenditure was met. Specific receipts in aid of the service. Rates and other unallocated receipts. (5) Fees, tolls, rents and other receipts not being grants or rates. (3) Government grants. (4) £ £ £ £ Sewers and sewage disposal 8,948,025 754,299 219,933 7,973,793 Collection and disposal of house refuse 7,874,393 457,890 11,185 7,405,318 Scavenging and watering of roads and streets. (approx.) 4,450,000 Not ascertained. — (approx.) 4,450,000 Hospitals, sanatoria, dispensaries, etc.: For tuberculosis 3,338,150 472,820 1,936,564 928,766 For venereal diseases 462,639 10,377 407,277 44,985 For other diseases (fever, diphtheria, small-pox, etc.). 4,320,877 207,597 4,249 4,109,031 Salaries of medical officers of health, inspectors of nuisances and health visitors (so far as not allocated to specific services). 1,345,259 9,796 389,174 946,289 Maternity and child welfare 2,003,722 472,423 882,556 648,743 Baths, washhouses and open bathing places. 1,803,912 774,969 11,197 1,017,746 Parks, pleasure grounds and open spaces. 3,920,652 898,064 298,812 2,723,776 Vaccination 172,558 — 10,323 162,235 Port Sanitary service 104,639 17,701 45,464 41,474 Cemeteries 1,463,462 901,989 24,088 537,385 Water supply 16,437,690 12,613,969 32,053 3,791,668 Other health services 1,856,497* 478,861 6,370 1,371,266 58,503,000 18,070,000 4,278,000 36,152,000 The grants entered in column (4) are in some cases based on expenditure incurred before 1921–22 and include grants made in respect of schemes of work for the unemployed. Expenditure in respect of lunatics and lunatic asylums, mental deficiency, poor law infirmaries and other poor law institutions for the sick, and housing and town planning is not included above. * Includes approximately £15,000 in respect of expenditure on the Welfare of the Blind.
Public Health Expenditure (Voluntary Agencies). Expenditure. £ Exchequer share. £ Maternity and Child Welfare … … 400,000 230,000 Welfare of the Blind … … 450,000 70,000
STATEMENT B. National Health Insurance (calendar year 1922). £ Expenditure … … … … … … 26,000,000 Exchequer share … … … … … … 7,500,000 956W
STATEMENT C. Board of Education School Medical Service (1922–23). £ Expenditure … … … … 1,234,000 Exchequer share (approximately) … … … … 600,000