§ Mr. Carter-Jonesasked the Secretary of State for Social Services (1) if he will list in the Official Report the five local authorities with the lowest per capita expenditure on telephones, aids and adaptations for disabled people in the year ended 31st March 1976;
(2) if he will list in the Official Report the five local authorities with the largest per capita expenditure on telephones, aids and adaptations for disabled people in the year ended 31st March 1976.
§ Mr. Alfred MorrisThe information required is as follows:
ing the local authorities that spend most and least on services for disabled people; and if he will make a statement;
(2)in view of the fact that in the absence of national guidelines, the only method of ensuring that the standards of services to disabled people become more uniform across the country is the compilation and publicisation of accurate statistics, he will seek to increase, rather than decrease, the available statistics.
§ Mr. EnnalsI have not decided to publicise less information on local authority activities but I have changed the presentation of some of the statistics I publish so that they would not be misleading. The statistics did not relate to expenditure on services specifically for disabled people but I am sending my hon. Friend a copy of the letter to the Disability Alliance explaining this change.
I fully accept that it is important to be able to make comparisons and my 719W Department will publish all the necessary material to enable this to be done.
In recent years there has been an improvement in the range and quality of statistical information about the personal social services, and I intend that this improvement should continue. Among other advantages it will enable public debate about variations in provisions to be better informed.