§ Mr. Alfred Morrisasked the Secretary of State for Social Services what is his estimate of the amount of Exchequer 269W support for expenditure by local authorities on the chronically sick and disabled for the years 1973–74 and 1974–75; what was the actual amount of Exchequer support for this purpose in 1970–71, 1971–72 and 1972–73; and if he will make a statement.
§ Sir K. JosephRate support grant is distributed to local authorities as a block grant, and support for particular types of their expenditure cannot, therefore, be identified. I referred in my answer to the hon. Member on 12th July [Vol. 859, c.429]—to a 50 per cent. increase in local authorities' spending on this service between 1971–72 and 1973–74. Comparable figures for 1974–75 are not available.