§ Mr. Ashleyasked the Secretary of State for Social Services if he will arrange for the inclusion in the next census of questions relating to handicap in order that an objective test of need is available for the purposes of distributing resources to the health and personal social services; and if he will make a statement.
§ Mr. Alfred MorrisThis possibility has been examined. It was concluded that it is not practicable to use the census to obtain statistics on the number of handicapped people and to determine needs, because all the personal questions must depend upon self-assessment or assessment by the head of the household. It was felt that this would rule out objec-666W tivity in relation both to the degree of handicap suffered and needs reported and thus make comparisons impossible. A further problem is that information given in the census is confidential and may not be used for identifying individuals for administrative purposes.