asked the Secretary of State for Social Services if she will seek to discover how many local authorities have suspended implementation of Section 1 of the Chronically Sick and Disabled Persons Act 1970; and if she will make a statement.
I have not yet received the report to which I referred in my reply to my hon. Friend the Member for Eccles (Mr. Carter-Jones) on 18th March. I should prefer to consider the implications of that report before considering what action might be appropriate in relation to the implementation of Section 1 by the present local authorities. In part, action taken pursuant to Section 1(1) is reflected in the statistics of persons whose names are included in registers maintained by local authorities under Section 29 of the National Assistance Act 1948. Statistics for the year ending 31st March last will be available towards the end of 1975 in the usual way.—[Vol. 888, c. 372.]
asked the Secretary of State for Social Services if she will seek to amend Section 2 of the Chronically Sick and Disabled Persons Act 1970 to enable her to assume responsibility for the provision of services to the severely mentally ill and mentally handicapped and also to the physically ill and physically handicapped; and if she will make a statement.
Parliament placed on local authorities the responsibility for providing services under Section 2 of the Chronically Sick and Disabled Persons Act 1970, and I have no proposals for amending the Act.