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Oral Answers

[MR. BERRY.]

HOUSE OF COMMONS

evicted by order of the court are accom- modated at rest centres, and not in work- houses?

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Local Authorities' Lists

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42. Mr. Keeling asked the Minister of Health what relation his request to local authorities in Circular 171/48 to supply

Mr. Bevan: There are varying sets of particulars of housing applicants on their

circumstances and I should not like to say which one prevails over the others. It is certainly the case that families have come into London, and have swollen and exaggerated local housing difficulties.

Mr. Henry Usborne: I do not think my right hon. Friend answered the part of the Question, which asks whether hus- bands are separated from wives. Could he tell us whether that is so?

Mr. Bevan: I did so. I said that in 36 instances the husband modated with his family.

was accom-

Mr. Ronald Chamberlain : Is my right hon. Friend aware that it is not only families coming into London who find their way into workhouses; that the rest centres are full of cases of eviction, and that consequently a great number of families have to go to workhouses?

Mr. Bevan: I hope the House will give attention to the reply itself, which shows that this problem, while it is individually severe, is not so extensive as is imagined.

Colonel Stoddart-Scott: Is the Minis- ter aware that in poor law institutions in Middlesex and Hendon husbands are kept separate from their wives and families, and have been in that situation for as much as five months at a time; what instructions does he issue to these local authorities to limit the period for which families are broken up like this?

Mr. Bevan: The hon. and gallant Member makes that statement. I hope he will send me particulars so that at least one of his statements can be con- firmed.

Colonel Stoddart-Scott: It is already in the Minister's office.

Mrs. Braddock: Is my right hon. Friend aware that in Liverpool there are families which have been separated and living in institutions for over 12 months?

Mr. Speaker: This Question deals with London workhouses, not Liverpool work- houses.

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lists bears to the survey of local condi- tions and ascertainment of needs in res- pect of slums and overcrowding referred to in Command Paper No. 7442.

Mr. Bevan: I would refer the hon. Member to Paragraphs 6 to 9 of the Command Paper.

Private Builders (Licences)

43. Mr. Orr-Ewing asked the Minister of Health whether, in view of the urgent necessity for increasing the tempo and reducing the cost of house-building, he will revise the arrangements in Circular 108/48 which forbid the issue of licences to private builders otherwise than single licences for single houses or pairs of semi-detached houses for specific

occupiers.

Mr. Bevan: These arrangements were made in order to ensure that each licence is related to a particular building. There is no objection to applications being made for a series of licences.

Aluminium Houses

44. Mr. Orr-Ewing asked the Minister of Health whether any further tenders for permanent aluminium houses are now to be approved.

Mr. Bevan: No further contracts by local authorities are under consideration.

Mr. Orr-Ewing: Is it not the case that permanent aluminium buildings are being approved for such things as schools, and so on?

Mr. Bevan: I think that permanent aluminium buildings are being approved for schools. This Question deals with houses, and unless aluminium houses go down in price we cannot give any further contracts.

District Heating Schemes

60. Sir W. Wakefield asked the Minis- ter of Health whether, in view of the fact that a number of local authorities now have powers to introduce domestic heat- ing schemes, that a number of other local authoritics are now seeking powers to introduce such schemes by means of

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private legislation, and that this method of obtaining such powers is costly and involves delay, he will now take steps to prepare enabling legislation under which all local authorities in the country will be given general powers to introduce district heating schemes subject to suit- able safeguards for the various interests concerned.

Mr. Bevan District heating is still an experiment and its immediate applica- tion is limited by the resources, particu- larly steel, that can be spared from other urgent work. The drafting of general legislation raises some difficult problems, among them the safeguards referred to by the hon. Member, and these are being

studied.

Sir W. Wakefield: Will the Minister do his utmost to urge the more rapid development of district heating because in that way economies can be effected in fuel and great advantages to the com- munity can accrue?

Mr. Bevan: Even if we were satisfied that district heating had passed entirely out of the experimental stage, the chief limitation at the moment is the absence of enough steel.

Mr. Bossom: Is the Minister aware that district heating has been successfully carried out for over 60 years in New York, and is there any reason why we should not take advantage of the know- ledge which exists in the world?

Mr. Beyan: We should be delighted to take advantage of all that is known about district heating, if we had the steel.

Mr. Keeling Is the Minister aware that this matter has long passed out of the experimental stage and has, because of successful experiments elsewhere, been applied on a big scale in Westminster?

Mr. Bevan: The production of steel long ago exceeded the experiment stage, and we have not enough steel.

RAILWAYS (EX-LOCAL

GOVERNMENT EMPLOYEES)

34. Mr. Hollis asked the Minister of Health whether he is aware that per- sons in receipt of compensation for loss of local government office who accepted

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employment from railway companies prior to nationalisation lose their com- pensation under paragraph 14 of the Eighth Schedule to the Local Govern- ment Act, 1929, on the nationalisation of the railways; and whether he will introduce legislation to remedy this anomaly.

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Mr. Bevan: The answer to the first part of the Question is, Yes, Sir"; and to the last part, “No, Sir."

Mr. Hollis: The right hon. Gentleman admits, then, the fact that, as a result of nationalisation, certain people lose the rights of compensation which they originally possessed? Is he, then, satis- fied that that is a satisfactory state of affairs?

Mr. Bevan : It is not as a result of nationalisation. It is as a result of a very complicated code in which there is a number of anomalies.

PARKINSON'S DISEASE

(TREATMENT)

36. Dr. Segal asked the Minister of Health how many British subjects have been enabled to travel to Kassel to under- go the Voeller treatment for Parkinson's disease; on what basis were they selected; and what are the results of treatment to date.

Mr. Bevan: No British subjects have so far been permitted by the United States authorities to travel to Germany for treat- ment by Dr. Voeller. I am arranging a full investigation into Dr. Voeller's claims. If these are substantiated I will see what can be done to ensure that the treatment is available to all sufferers from the disease.

Dr. Segal: Could my right hon. Friend give some indication of the time when the report may be made available so that some of these people may look forward, with perhaps some degree of justified hope, to some remedying of their position?

Mr. Bevan: I obviously could not give any date, because those experts who are responsible for investigating these claims must not be unduly harried by Parlia mentary pressure. They must satisfy themselves that there is something in the claim before any further steps can be taken.