§ Mr. Mackintoshasked the Secretary of State for Social Services how many old and disabled people have been helped with telephone installations and rentals in the various Scottish local authorities; and how the total in proportion to population in Scotland compares with the total for the same period in England.
§ Mr. William RossI have been asked to reply.
In the year ended 31st December 1973 544 persons were helped by local authorities with telephone installations and 449 with rentals. The numbers helped by each authority were as follows:
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Numbers Area Installation Rental Burgh of Inverness — — Counties of: Caithness 2 2 Inverness 13 4 Ross and Cromarty 2 2 Sutherland 12 11 Highland Region 29 19 City of Aberdeen 26 12 Counties of: Aberdeen and Kincardine 7 1 Banff 1 3 Moray and Nairn 5 5 Grampian Region 39 21 City of Dundee 35 9 Burghs of: Arbroath 14 — Perth 1 4 Counties of: Angus 3 2 Perth and Kinross 6 1 Tayside Region 59 16
Numbers Area Installation Rental Burghs of: Dunfermline 10 8 Kircaldy 4 2 County of Fife 5 5 Fife Region 19 15 City of Edinburgh 145 180 Counties of: Midlothian, East Lothian and Peebles 13 12 Lothian Region 158 192 Counties of: Berwick 1 — Roxburgh 1 — Selkirk 2 — Borders Region 4 — Burghs of: Falkirk — — Stirling — — Counties of: Clackmannan 2 — Stirling 12 11 Central Region 14 11 City of Glasgow 40 — Burghs of: Airdrie — — Ayr — 1 Clydebank 20 17 Coatbridge 3 1 Dumbarton — — East Kilbride 23 7 Greenock and Port Glasgow 32 8 Hamilton 1 — Kilmarnock — — Motherwell and Wishaw — — Paisley 1 — Rutherglen — — Counties of: Argyll 6 2 Ayr 37 30 Bute — — Dunbarton 10 3 Lanark 23 95 Renfrew 10 2 Strathclyde Region 206 166 Burgh of Dumfries — — Counties of: Dumfries 1 — Kirkcudbright 4 5 Wigtown — — Dumfries and Galloway Region 5 5 Orkney 3 — Zetland 8 4 The total numbers assisted represented, in relation to the population in Scotland aged over 65, 0.8 per 1,000 as regards installations and 0.7 per 1,000 as regards rentals: these proportions compare with 3.43 and 4.53 respectively in England during the year ended 31st March 1974, the nearest comparable period for which figures are available.