§ Mr. Ashleyasked the Secretary of State for Social Services if he will list local authorities in rank order according the most recent figures of the amount they spent per 1,000 population on services for the handicapped under Section 29 of the National Assistance Act.
§ Sir K. JosephI would refer the hon. Member to the Welfare Services Statistics for 1970–71 published by the Institute of Municipal Treasurers and Accountants 415W and the Society of County Treasurers, which include these particulars for each responsible local authority by type and in order of population size. But it would be misleading to list authorities in order of the amount per thousand population spent under Section 29 of the National Assistance Act, not only because that amount covers services for the blind and deaf as well as the handicapped as normally interpreted, but also because that amount constitutes only part of any authority's expenditure on services for the handicapped, and because the incidence of disablement varies substantially from one authority's area to another and cannot therefore be measured by the population of the area.