§ Mr. GODFREY LOCKER-LAMPSONasked the President of the Local Government Board whether, in view of his recent statement that there were sufficient beds available for insured consumptives and that it was the fault of insurance committees if such persons were not receiving accommodation, he proposes to take any action in the case of the Bristol insurance committee, an official of which reported on 4th May that twenty-one consumptives were awaiting beds, and the Salop insurance committee, which recently reported that there were twenty-five insured persons in the sanatorium and nine on the waiting list?
§ Mr. HERBERT SAMUELThe Insurance Commission are making inquiry into the two cases referred to in the question. I may, however, state that on the 31st of March last the Bristol insurance committee had forty-one insured persons in residential institutions for the treatment of tuberculosis, and that the Bristol corporation are carrying out a scheme under which a total number of 125 beds will be available. Twenty-two additional beds will, I understand, be ready for use in the course of a few weeks. On the same date the Salop insurance committee had twenty-six insured persons in such institutions. The sanatorium in Shropshire is being enlarged so as to contain an additional twenty-five beds, and I am informed738W that these additional beds will be ready for use in a month or six weeks.