asked the Secretary of State for Social Services what action he proposes to take to increase the numbers of teachers of chiropody in view of the fact that a school of chiropody is unlikely to be set up in Plymouth until 1980 owing to the shortage of such teachers.

Officials of my Department will be discussing the supply of chiropody teachers and other matters related to chiropody training with representatives of the Chiropodists' Board of the Council for Professions Supplementary to Medicine, the Society of Chiropodists and the Whitley Council Staff Side in September. It is my hope that one outcome of these discussions will be to enable the Plymouth school, which is urgently required, to begin to take students next year.