HC Deb 16 October 1973 vol 861 cc29-30W
Miss Quennell

asked the Secretary of State for Social Services what proportion of those mentally disabled he estimates is living at home.

Mr. Alison

National statistics are not available in terms of mental disablement. In England it is estimated that at any one time about 270,000 people are under the care of hospitals and local authorities on account of mental illness and that about 110,000 suffer from severe mental handicap. Of these some 60 per cent. and 55 per cent. respectively live at home.

Miss Quennell

asked the Secretary of State for Social Services (1) excluding those disabled by industrial injury, and those mentally disabled, how many disabled persons over the age of 16 years he estimates are living at home;

(2) what proportion of disabled persons over the age of 16 years living at home, other than those disabled through industrial injury and those mentally disabled, he estimates to be over the age of 65 years.

Mr. Alison

It is not possible directly to correlate the figures in the Office of Population Censuses and Surveys' report "Handicapped and Impaired in Great Britain" (1971) and those for industrial injury, but available information suggests that there are of the order of 900,000 such persons in Great Britain and that of these approximately 75 per cent. are over 65.