asked the Minister of Health the number of local authorities who have provided any accommodation for mental defectives, the number who have failed to do so, and the estimated number of mental defectives for whom no institutional accommodation is available?

Twenty-nine out of 124 local authorities (or combinations of authorities) have made some provision for the residential care of the mentally defective. As my right hon. Friend stated in reply to a similar question on 19th December, the present accommodation is inadequate; and if the figures estimated by the Departmental Committee on Mental Deficiency be accepted, the shortage of beds would probably be approximately not less than 20,000.