asked the Minister of Health whether he has considered the circumstances under which the Birmingham Executive Council has recommended that a dentist should have £1,000 of his fees withheld, and its comments about the circumstances which caused it so to recommend; and whether he will cause the name of the dentist concerned to be published.

asked the Minister of Health whether he has confirmed the recommendation sent to him by Birmingham Health Executive Council to stop £1,000 from the pay of a local dentist.

No, Sir; I am required by the Regulations to consider also the dentist's representations, which have still to be heard, and the advice of my Dental Advisory Committee.

Is the right hon. Gentleman aware that on Saturday, we are told, this dentist was fined a further £200 in respect of another offence? How much longer are this man's patients to be left in complete ignorance of the sort of dentist who is attending them? Can this possibly be right? Can the Minister tell us of any other profession in the country in which a person who was found guilty of obtaining money for work that he had not done would not find himself in the criminal courts? Ought not the public to be protected?

I can take account only of facts which are brought to my attention in the appropriate way, and I can do so only in accordance with the regulations by which I am governed. However, it will be appreciated that these are withholdings for breach of contract with the executive council and not fines for offences.

What is the point of this anonymity? Surely there is nothing in the regulations which prevents the Minister making the name of the individual public?

It is not usual in cases where part of the payment under a contract is withheld for incomplete carrying out of a contract for the names of the parties to be disclosed.

On a point of order, Mr. Speaker. May I give notice that when the right hon. Gentleman has finished his deliberations I shall hope to raise the matter on the Adjournment?

No; that is irregular.

asked the Minister of Health if he is aware that, in a family in which there are a number of young children, such ailments as colds and measles commonly run through the whole family, and that in such a family the expense of the proposed extra prescription charge will be considerable, and will, in many cases, make the purchase of special foods, necessary for recuperation, impossible; and what steps he proposes to take to meet this hardship.

I would refer the hon. Member to the arrangements for preventing hardship set out in the National Assistance Board leaflet A.L.19, of which I am sending him a copy.

While we in this House understand about those arrangements, would not the right hon. Gentleman agree that it is extremely difficult for some of these harassed mothers of families in these circumstances, or for the chronic sick, to take full advantage of the arrangements? Cannot he suggest something better to ease this real hardship?

I have no reason to think that under such circumstances as those to which the Question refers there would be a severe additional cost, or, if there were, that the arrangements to which I have referred would not avoid hardship as a result of it.

asked the Minister of Health if he is aware that in 1956, at clinics in the borough of Barking, 34,000 tins of national dried milk were sold at 10½d. a tin, but that in 1957, when the price was raised to 2s. 4d. only 25,000 tins were sold; and, since the proposed introductions and increases of charges for welfare foods are likely to cause a similar fall in demand, nationally as well as locally, what special observation of the effect on the health of young children and nursing mothers he intends to institute.

I have no reason to think that the proposed charges for vitamin supplements will have adverse effects.

If the hon. Lady is really trying to look at this realistically, would she not agree that it is realistic to expect that some mothers—perhaps only a minority—will be less able or less willing to take up these welfare foods when they have to pay the full cost of them? Why should the children be penalised in those circumstances because the Government are making it more difficult rather than easier for the mothers to get the foods?

As I explained in the debate on the regulations, those mothers for whom the charges would impose hardship can have the vitamins supplied free, as they already have welfare milk.

Look at the figures!

asked the Minister of Health what is the percentage of mothers entitled to welfare foods in the city and county borough of Carlisle who take advantage of these facilities.

The uptake of vitamin supplements in Carlisle in 1960 was orange juice 44 per cent.; cod liver oil 11 per cent.; vitamin tablets 31 per cent.

While I am interested to hear from my hon. Friend's reply that so many of my constituents are following the example of my wife and myself, might I ask her whether she is aware that when I go to my constituency I see not, on the one hand, 40 per cent. healthy children and, on the other hand, 60 per cent. children suffering from rickets and scurvy because they do not happen to have had their welfare foods, but an entire population of healthy children? Will she and her right hon. Friend look at this whole question of welfare foods with a view, perhaps, to concentrating them on the real cases of hardship where there are large families, or even such circumstances as have just been mentioned by the hon. Member for Barking (Mr. Driberg)?

Yes, Sir; that is the purpose of the present measures, that benefit shall be given where it is most needed. I am sure that the fact that my hon. Friend sees healthy children in his constituency is due to there being a wide variety of foods plentifully available.

asked the Minister of Health what progress has been made in the constitution of the Chiropodists Board under the Professions Supplementary to Medicine Act, 1960; whether he has received any communications complaining of delay in the preparation of the register of chiropodists in the manner prescribed by Section 2 of this Act; and if he will make a statement.

The Chiropodists Board will be appointed by the Council for the Professions Supplementary to Medicine, the Membership of which is not yet completed. I am glad to say that Sir Sidney Littlewood has agreed to serve as Chairman of the Council, and I hope to be able to announce the names of the other members very soon. I have received one complaint of delay.

While I thank my right hon. Friend for his reply, may I ask him whether he is aware that at any rate one of my constituents who has had many years of service as a chiropodist is chafing at this delay, and when the board is established will he give my constituent an opportunity to establish himself on the register, which he is unable to do at the moment?

I am anxious to get on with this, but, as my hon. Friend will realise, it is the council which makes the appointments, and that has to be brought into existence first.

Is the Minister aware that the whole House has listened to his answer with great interest, for it shows, together with the Question, that his hon. Friend, at least in one or two things in medicine, has a progressive outlook and not a reactionary one?

I have yet to discover the aspects in which my hon. Friend's outlook is not progressive.

asked the Minister of Health whether he is aware that a report has been received by the Newport and East Monmouthshire Hospital Management Committee from their consultant surveyor stating that conditions at the twin operating theatres at the Royal Gwent Hospital are hazardous and are not up to safety standards; whether he is aware that the hospital management committee have protested to the Welsh Regional Hospital Board at delays in providing new theatres; and what action he intends to take to end the existing hazards.

I understand that one of the consultant surgeons expressed himself in this sense at a meeting of the committee. An officer from the Welsh Board of Health is to visit the theatres immediately with representatives of the Welsh Hospital Board, and report their conclusions.

Is not the Parliamentary Secretary aware that for more than six months the management committee has been pressing this problem with the Ministry? Why is it that we have had to wait until there has been a report which the chairman of the hospital management committee has rightly said will have a frightening effect on folk before the Ministry even takes the trouble to go there and inspect the actual circumstances?

It is true that the hospital management committee has been pressing this point. As the hon. Gentleman knows, there are proposals for the rebuilding of the hospital. In the meantime, however, in view of the representations, the matter is being looked at very urgently.

asked the Minister of Health if he will estimate the loss of revenue which would result from exempting from payment of prescription charges all persons with incomes of £9 per week or less.

I have no means of estimating the number of prescriptions dispensed for these persons.

Is it not regrettable that this information should not be available? Is it beyond the scope of human—or, perhaps I should say, Ministerial ingenuity—to evolve a scheme which would exempt small income earners from paying prescription charges except through the machinery of the National Assistance Board?

That is a separate question. My hon. Friend's Question asked for an estimate. It is impossible to know the incomes of persons when prescriptions are dispensed for them or their dependants.

asked the Minister of Health if he has yet considered ways and means to ensure that those living on small means, but above the National Assistance scale, can be relieved from paying health charges.

asked the Minister of Health whether he has yet considered methods to relieve persons with small incomes from prescription charges, so as to obviate the necessity to claim from the National Assistance Board.

asked the Minister of Health whether he has yet worked out a scheme whereby those with small incomes may be relieved from paying prescription charges.

asked the Minister of Health if, following his further study of the problem, he will now exempt from the payment of prescription charges all persons who are not assessed for income tax in any year.

I am keeping under review the detailed working of present arrangements for the ascertainment and prevention of hardship, but I am satisfied that in principle those arrangements are on the right lines.

Will my right hon. Friend bear in mind that, whatever he thinks, a lot of people disagree with him? Quite a number of people in the Conservative Party disagree with him. May I ask him, therefore, whether he is consulting the Treasury to see whether some other arrangement cannot be made to deal with this very important and pressing question for those living on small fixed incomes?

Is the right hon. Gentleman aware that I sent him particulars of a very proud old soldier—whose name cannot be given in public—whose total income from all sources, for himself and his wife, is £8 10s. a week? He pays rent of over £1 a week. The old lady has a weak heart and it is continually necessary for her to have prescriptions. Is the right hon. Gentleman aware that in his reply to me it was stated that this old soldier could have no assistance?

I will look or look again at the case mentioned by the hon. Member for Cannock (Miss Lee). As my hon. Friend the Member for Tynemouth (Dame Irene Ward) knows, alternative methods have been very carefully considered, but no method can be workable which imposes upon doctors or chemists the obligation of themselves assessing hardship or need.

Is my right hon. Friend aware that although a great deal has been done through the National Assistance Board, it is my experience in my constituency that a number of people are still too proud to go to the National Assistance Board and, therefore, suffer in silence? I hope that my right hon. Friend, in conjunction with the Inland Revenue, will do something to work out a method, other than that through the National Assistance Board, for bringing relief to these people.

There are great difficulties in using taxable income as a standard of obtaining help in hardship in these cases, but my right hon. Friend the Minister of Pensions and National Insurance and I will certainly not close our minds to any practicable method of improving the existing procedure.

Does not my right hon. Friend agree that there is some justification for assuming that most persons whose incomes are so low that they are not assessable for taxation should be relieved from paying these charges? Surely it should be possible, in conjunction with the Inland Revenue, to find some scheme which would exempt people who do not pay tax from paying prescription charges in future?

This question is primarily for the Treasury, but assessability for tax does not appear to afford a practicable method for giving immediate relief to people in these circumstances.

Does the right hon. Gentleman now realise the sense of the case put from this side of the House—that the whole idea of the increases in prescription charges was wrong? Now, apparently, just before the municipal elections, his hon. Friends are finding out the same thing.

asked the Minister of Health if local medical practitioners are entitled under his regulations to charge for signing International Certificates of Vaccination; and whether any recommendations have been issued regarding the insistence by some doctors on fees for this purpose.

The answer to the first part of the Question is "Yes" and to the second "No."

Does not the hon. Lady agree that it is rather mean for a doctor to charge for his signature on this document, which must be produced to prove vaccination, since otherwise the person concerned cannot go abroad? Will she recommend doctors called upon to vaccinate persons to add their signature without charge?

This certificate is not one that a doctor is required to give under the National Health Service, and the matter of the charge, therefore, is a private arrangement between patient and doctor and not one in which my right hon. Friend could take action.

Does not the hon. Lady think, however, that to charge for this signature is mean? Is it not the case that those of us who are asked to sign documents make no charges—indeed, do not wish to make charges? As doctors are quite well paid, is not this charge unnecessary?

This is a transaction which is outside the National Health Service, and I am afraid that I cannot comment on it.

On a point of order, Mr. Speaker. In view of the unsatisfactory nature of the reply, I beg to give notice that I will seek to raise this matter on the Adjournment at the earliest opportunity.