§ Mr. WEBBasked the Minister of Health whether he can state, for the latest date for which statistics or estimates are available, the number and percentage of the inmates of workhouses, not being separate infirmaries or schools, who are children under 14, persons certified as of unsound mind or mentally deficient, sane persons over 70 years of age, and, if possible, bed lying cases under medical treatment?
Mr. CHAMBERLAIN:On the 1st January, 1924, 11, 470 children under 16 years of age and 9, 287 persons certified under the Lunacy Acts, the Idiots Act, 1886, or the Mental Deficiency Act, 1913, were inmates of Poor Law institutions other than separate establishments for children or for persons suffering from disease of body or mind. These figures represent respectively 8'6 and DO per cent of the population of the institutions in which they were maintained. 43, 591 persons over 70 years of age were on the same date inmates of Poor Law institutions, and represented 21'4 per cent. of the population of those institutions. Of these, 40, 845 were not maintained in wards or institutions provided for cases of mental infirmity, but it is impossible to state the exact number that were not mentally infirm. I regret that I am also unable to state the number of children under 14 or the number of bed-lying cases under medical treatment.