§ Mr. Joel Barnettasked the Secretary of State for Social Services if he will make a statement on the progress of the research projects in which his Department is involved to prevent incidents in which old persons may be dead for many months before being discovered.
§ Sir K. JosephNo research projects with which my Department is currently involved are directly concerned with the problem of elderly people whose deaths pass undetected for some period, though a technical evaluation of emergency warning devices is being undertaken by the Loughborough Institute for Consumer Ergonomics. I am not satisfied that the problem of undetected death is susceptible of formal research, though every opportunity is taken by my Department to pursue useful lines of inquiry and to encourage the extension and improvement of community care services, particularly for elderly people who live alone.