Oral Answers to Questions — Public Health. – in the House of Commons am ar 17 Ebrill 1929.
Sir Robert Thomas
, Anglesey
asked the Minister of Health the number of private nursing homes in London, in the provinces, and in Wales, respectively; what are the regulations for the inspection and approval of these institutions by the local health authority prior to the admission of patients and subsequently; and how many inspections were carried out in each of the three groups mentioned above during the last 12 months to any convenient recent date?
Sir Kingsley Wood
, Woolwich West
The Nursing Homes Registration Act, 1927, come into operation on the 1st July, 1928. Medical officers of health have been asked to include statistics of homes registered under the Act in their annual reports for 1928, but these reports are not yet available. Premises within the scope of the Act are subject to the provisions of the Act and of by-Laws made under it by local super vising authorities. These authorities are empowered to inspect nursing homes under Section 5 of the Act, but my right hon. Friend has no detailed information as to their exercise of this power.
Ministers make up the Government and almost all are members of the House of Lords or the House of Commons. There are three main types of Minister. Departmental Ministers are in charge of Government Departments. The Government is divided into different Departments which have responsibilities for different areas. For example the Treasury is in charge of Government spending. Departmental Ministers in the Cabinet are generally called 'Secretary of State' but some have special titles such as Chancellor of the Exchequer. Ministers of State and Junior Ministers assist the ministers in charge of the department. They normally have responsibility for a particular area within the department and are sometimes given a title that reflects this - for example Minister of Transport.
Laws are the rules by which a country is governed. Britain has a long history of law making and the laws of this country can be divided into three types:- 1) Statute Laws are the laws that have been made by Parliament. 2) Case Law is law that has been established from cases tried in the courts - the laws arise from test cases. The result of the test case creates a precedent on which future cases are judged. 3) Common Law is a part of English Law, which has not come from Parliament. It consists of rules of law which have developed from customs or judgements made in courts over hundreds of years. For example until 1861 Parliament had never passed a law saying that murder was an offence. From the earliest times courts had judged that murder was a crime so there was no need to make a law.
