asked the Minister of Health what provision he proposes to make in the new National Medical Service for the institutional treatment and training of spastics.

The service will provide for the treatment of spastics as for other patients, 'but the precise nature of the provision to be made must depend on the plans made by the regional hospital boards in the light of present and future experience.

Is my right hon. Friend aware that there are estimated to be about 12,000 of these severely disabled people in this country, that there is at present no kind of institutional treatment for them and, in view of these facts, will he keep this matter urgently before him and issue the right kind of directives to regional boards in regard to these people?

I think my hon. Friend may be making a mistake in applying the word "spastics" too generally, because this is a very rare form of cerebral palsy which falls into a number of different classes, and the general term "spastic" does not give any indication of the precise nature of the disease in particular categories.