§ Mr. Meadowcroftasked the Secretary of State for Social Services (1) whether he will revise the criteria for determining the standard payment for nursing home accommodation;
(2) whether he is satisfied that the existing rate of payment for nursing home care is sufficient to maintain satisfactory standards; and if he will make a statement;
(3) what consultations he has had in relation to rates of payment for registered nursing homes and standards of care within them.
§ Mr. WhitneyI assume the hon. Member is referring to payments made under the supplementary benefit scheme to certain people in nursing homes. We put proposals for changing the relevant arrangemens to the Social Security Advisory Committee last year. Over 500 bodies submitted comments on the consultative document, a copy of which is in the Library. We are now considering the report of the Social Security Advisory Committee, which we have just received, and will publish the report and our response when our consideration is complete. So far as standards of care are concerned, we introduced measures to improve control on 1 January after extensive consultation.
§ Mr. Meadowcroftasked the Secretary of State for Social Services how many nursing homes were deregistered in each of the years 1981, 1982, 1983 and 1984 as a result of the inspection process.
§ Mr. John PattenThe information requested for past years is not available centrally, but a national list of cancelled registrations for nursing homes, residential care homes and voluntary children's homes is being compiled from 1 January 1985.
§ Mr. Meadowcroftasked the Secretary of State for Social Services whether he is satisfied that the inspection powers in relation to registered nursing homes have sufficient penalties to make them effective; and if he will make a statement.
§ Mr. John PattenYes, we are not aware of any evidence to the contrary.