§ Mr. GILLISasked the Minister of Pensions whether he is aware of the complaints against his Department of threatening ex-service men suffering from slight nervous breakdown with the forfeiture of a part, or the whole, of their allowance if they will not consent to remain in asylums or other mental institutions, or if their relatives insist on directing their discharge under Section 72 of the Lunacy Act; whether it was for this purpose that Dr. Forwood, a pensions medical officer recently intervened in the case of C. S. Norris, a harmless young ex-airman confined in Banstead Asylum, whose wife wishes to detain him there, drawing his and her allowance, although his parents have offered to give him a comfortable home and unremitting attention; and if he will indicate what steps he proposes to take that ex-service men should be no longer subjected to unjustified disability of this nature?
§ Major TRYONThe personal and family allowances and other privileges granted under Article 6 of the Royal Warrant are in all cases conditional on the acceptance of the course of medical treatment which is considered necessary by the medical advisers of the Ministry. My right hon. Friend has necessarily to consider whether they can be continued at their full rate where a course of treatment is interrupted against definite medical advice, to the clear detriment of the man's condition. I am not aware that any complaint has arisen in regard to this rule. In the particular case referred to the man was examined last July by a medical inspector of the Ministry, who, on medical grounds and in the direct interests of the patient, was unable to recommend his discharge from institutional treatment.