Imposing a legal duty on local authorities meant for assessing the social care needs of elderly lot and disabled people is the need of the hour for which the Government was urged.

According to the Law Commission, laws meant for covering the provision of adult social care needed a change.

Government was urged to create a ‘single, clear and modern decree’, which now is spread across 38 separate Acts of Parliament as old as 60 years or more.

The commission stated that what it seeked was to alter existing rights rather than creating new entitlements.

It said in a series of provisional recommendations that a new legislation should be created to guide social care decisions. Clear duty for assessing the care needs of individuals and making local authorities give the people services for all those who are entitled.

Frances Patterson QC, who led the project, said, "It is unacceptable that people should have to look at more than 38 Acts of Parliament, plus thousands of pages of guidance, to work out what the system is for delivering these essential services," she said.