§ Mr. Alfred Morrisasked the Secretary of State for Social Services if he will publish a table showing the progress made with implementing each of the recommendations of the Black report, "Inequalities in Health", as listed on pages 355 to 369 of the report.
§ Mr. Kenneth Clarke[pursuant to his reply, 2 March 1984, c. 385–86]: The report made 37 recommendations which were not all addressed to our Department. We have never undertaken to implement the recommendations of the Black report as such and we do not accept all the conclusions drawn by the report as the interpretation of the data in the report is open to considerable debate. However, many of them are consistent with the policies and priorities for the health and social services set out in our handbook "Care in Action" which authorities are expected to follow or are subsumed in other action taken by our Department. Some recommendations, particularly those on the social security system, would involve expenditure on a scale which cannot be contemplated, as the Government made clear during the debate in the House on 6 December 1982, at c. 599–676.