§ Miss Quennellasked the Secretary of State for Social Services what progress the Hampshire County Council has made in its survey of handicapped persons under the Chronically Sick and Disabled Persons Act; how many handicapped persons have been so far recorded; and how this compares with progress made by other authorities.
§ Mr. Alfred MorrisIn implementation of Section 1 of the Chronically Sick and Disabled Persons of the former Hampshire County Council carried out a sample survey in order to ascertain the392W numbers and needs of handicapped people. The results of this have been used in planning the development of services. Although returns in respect of people registered in 1973–74 under Section 29 are only just starting to come in, I understand from inquiries made of Hampshire that on 31st March 1974 8,632 physically handicapped people, excluding the blind and the deaf, were registered with the then county council under Section 29 of the National Assistance Act 1948, a figure which represented an increase of just over 60 per cent, over that for 31st March 1972.
It is not possible, purely on the basis of information such as this, to draw meaningful comparisons with other authorities, as neither the method adopted to implement Section 1 nor the increase in numbers registered of itself provides an adequate means of assessing progress in the implementation of the section. To do this is an extremely complex matter to which I am giving considerable thought at present.