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Oral Answers
HOUSE OF COMMONS
Mr. Drayson: Would the Minister try to speed this up as much as possible- because there are instances where money. has been collected by charitable organisa- tions to enable sufferers to go to Ger- many to undertake this cure, and many of them will have had false hopes built up if they are not allowed to go fairly soon?
Mr. Bevan: I do hope that people who are suffering from this very grave disease and their relatives will not allow false Ι hopes to be built up in this matter. certainly will expedite all the adminis- trative sides of this investigation, but I cannot expedite the investigation itself, because nothing worries research students, or indeed research workers of any sort, more than to be subject to public pressure.
Mr. Godfrey Nicholson: Has the right hon. Gentleman's Department a list of people suffering from this disease; and if, as my hon. Friend said, hopes have been built up, and if some of these sufferers have been led to believe that certain people have already been selected for treatment but do not know the basis upon which the selection has been made, could a list be compiled?
Mr. Bevan: I have already said that no one has been allowed by the Ameri- cans to go into that zone to be treated by Dr. Voeller. If anybody wants to know how many people are suffering from the disease-
Mr. Nicholson: I only want to know if the Department do know that.
Mr. Bevan: That is an entirely different matter. If the hon. Member will put a Question on the Order Paper I will try to answer it.
Mr. Nicholson : I want to know whether the right hon. Gentleman's Department know. Surely they know of all the people suffering from this disease.
Mr. Bevan: Obviously, this is a matter of statistical accuracy. I should not like to give the figures on the spur of the moment.
Mr. Nicholson: I did not ask for them.
Mr. Bevan: If the hon. Member will put down that Question I will try to get the information.
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Oral Answers
LOCAL AUTHORITIES
Welfare Services
556
38. Lord Willoughby de Eresby asked the Minister of Health what steps have been taken to give effect to the duties placed upon local authorities by Section 29 of the National Assistance Act, 1948, in the provision of welfare services for handicapped persons; and whether all local authorities have set up the neces- sary machinery to provide these welfare services.
I
Mr. Bevan: All local authorities have machinery for discharging their duty to As promote the welfare of the blind. regards other handicapped persons, have advised them that careful survey of needs and consultation with other bodies concerned must precede the exer- cise of their powers, and these steps are being taken in all areas.
Lord Willoughby de Eresby: In view handicapped of the fact that the term persons" includes a large number of ex- Service men of both wars, will the Minister expedite the matter?
Mr. Bevan: Yes; but while I am ex- pediting the machinery I should like to see to it that all these various bodies are satis- fied that the right things will be done when we start.
Housing Committees (Membership)
39. Colonel Stoddart-Scott asked the Minister of Health if, in view of the fact that members of local authorities who are tenants of council houses and sit on the local housing committee are unable to take part in the deliberations of the committee, he will take steps to remove this disability.
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Mr. Bevan: The disability mentioned by the hon. and gallant Member applies to matters in which tenants of council houses have a direct or indirect pecuniary interest, not to all housing matters. have power to remove it in relation to particular occasions, and I have always been ready to consider doing so in order to enable tenants of council houses to discuss, but not normally to vote upon, housing questions where a disability might arise.
Colonel Stoddart-Scott: Surely the Minister knows that certain chairmen of housing committees exclude all members
Oral Answers
9 DECEMBER 1948
558
allowing them to complete the informa- tion from their existing records?
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Oral Answers
Cho live in local authority houses from attending any of their meetings; and would he give a general dispensation from this regulation over the whole country, so that each individual who lives in a municipal house has not to apply indi- vidually to the Minister to get this dispensation?
Mr. Bevan: I should be astonished to find any chairman of a housing com- mittee who prevented any tenant of a council house from discussing any housing matter. If the hon. and gallant Member will bring those facts to my attention I will certainly have them inquired into.
Colonel Stoddart-Scott: The right hon. Gentleman has the information in his office now.
Circular 171/48
64. Mr. C. S. Taylor asked the Minister of Health whether he is aware that his Department's Circular 171/48, dated 10th November, 1948, will involve local autho- rities in much work; and whether he will give an estimate of the number of addi- tional staff to be employed for the sort- ing and checking of the forms by identity numbers.
Mr. Bevan: I appreciate that the re- view will involve some additional work, and for that reason the information asked for has been reduced to the minimum. The answer to the second part of the Question is "None."
Mr. Taylor: Can the right hon. Gentle- man say whether this change going to be effective, as he is only asking for the identity numbers of those on the housing list, and if husband and wife both apply for houses in different areas they will have different identity numbers?
Mr. Bevan: I think that it can be taken for granted that the number, when we have it, would be sufficiently near to the facts to give us a reasonably realistic estimate of the need.
Mr. Taylor: In that case would not it be just as effective to ask the local autho- rities to supply their present lists and check up on them?
Mr. Bevan That is impossible.
Mr. H. D. Hughes: Where the local authorities are satisfied that their list is up-to-date, will the Ministe consider
109 M 15
Mr. Bevan: Where the local authorities have the information that is being asked for, they will, of course, put it in their
return.
NATIONAL CORPORATIONS
(ACCIDENT INQUIRIES)
45. Wing-Commander Hulbert asked the Prime Minister if he will consider that inquiries into accidents in which national corporations are involved shall be conducted by an independent tribunal instead of by inspectors of the Depart- ment concerned.
The Prime Minister (Mr. Attlee): No, Sir.
Wing-Commander Hulbert: Does not the right hon. Gentleman consider it very unsatisfactory that in the case of civil aviation, where a Government corpora- tion may be involved in an accident on a Government-owned airfield, the inspec- tor of that Department should conduct the inquiry?
The Prime Minister: The hon. and gallant Member asks me a very wide and general question. If he has any question dealing with a specific Depart- ment he should put it to the Depart- mental Minister.
DOMESTIC COAL BURNING APPLIANCES
46. Mr. M. Philips Price asked the Prime Minister whether, in view of the importance of insuring the maximum efficiency in the consumption of coal for domestic purposes, he will take steps to instruct all the Ministers concerned to endeavour to evolve and enforce a policy by which existing inefficient coal burn- ing appliances throughout the country will be replaced before a certain date by approved and scientific apparatus.
The Prime Minister: The importance of replacing inefficient domestic coal burning appliances by efficient ones as soon as is practicable is recognised by Ministers concerned.
But my
hon. Friend will appreciate that this is a long- term question and depends on a number
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