§ Mr. Mortonasked the Secretary of State for Social Services if he will publish a comparison of the services provided under section 2 of the Chronically Sick and Disabled Persons Act, per 1,000 of the population, by the metropolitan districts of Leeds, Birmingham and Manchester, respectively.
§ Mr. Alfred MorrisThe information in respect of 1976–77 is as follows:
of the Chronically Sick and Disabled Persons Act 1970 lays a duty on local authorities to give this help to handicapped people, including elderly handicapped people, if the authority accepts that a need exists. Statistics collected centrally do not distinguish between telephones provided under these Acts but, overall, in the year ended 31st March 1977, 11,416 households in England were provided with a telephone and 73,772 households were assisted with the payment of telephone rentals. Comparable figures for Wales were 368 and 5,321 respectively. While I can never be completely satisfied, the rate of progress by local authorities has improved and I shall be continuing to do all I can to encourage further progress.