§ Mr. Carter-Jonesasked the Secretary of State for Social Services, following the letter of 9 March from the Minister for Social Services to the hon. Member for Eccles, whether he will set out any calculations on which he bases his view that to extend the exemptions from hire purchase and hiring controls for buying cars to all registered disabled people would result in considerable staffing and resource implications for local authorities; and why he considers any such extension unjustifiable.
§ Mr. RossiThere are some 900,000 people currently registered with local authorities as disabled. To extend the present exemptions to all or some of them would require a system of safeguards against abuse. The administration of any such system would fall to local authority social service departments. I do not feel that the advantages would be such as to justify at present the additional work and resource implications which this would have for the authorities.