§ 60. Mr. Sorensenasked the Minister of Health what information or reports have been received or what investigation has been made to determine how far any class of elderly pensioners now suffer from malnutrition or faulty nutrition owing to poverty; and what is the comparison between the present position and that of five and twenty-five years ago.
§ Mr. Iain MacleodThe National Food Survey provides information on the nutrient intake of old-age pensioner households as a group. My right hon. Friend the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food informs me that for the first half of 1955 it indicates that in comparison with the scales of requirements adopted by the British Medical Association Committee on Nutrition their average diet was adequate in respect of all nutrients except perhaps iron where it was 92 per cent. Except for Vitamin C, where the difference is largely seasonal, the levels are all higher than in 1950. There are no comparable figures for 1930.