§ Mr. J. GRIFFITHSasked the Minister of Health how many resolutions he has received from local authorities calling his attention to the intolerable burden imposed upon their ratepayers by the cost of public assistance and requesting that public assistance be made a national charge; and what steps he proposes to take in the matter?
§ Sir K. WOODI have recently received copies of resolutions passed by 11 local authorities urging that the cost of public assistance should be made a national charge. With regard to the second part of the question I would refer to the reply given on behalf of the Chancellor of the Exchequer to the hon. Member for Ogmore (Mr. E. J. Williams) on 13th May last to the effect that the cost of public assistance to the able-bodied is already borne almost entirely by the Exchequer and that in his view no public interest would be served by transferring the care of the sick and infirm from local to national bodies.