asked what arrangement has been made for providing medical benefit for insured persons who may become entitled to it while absent from their usual places of residence for holidays or otherwise?

The question is being brought before the Advisory Committee to-morrow. I have nothing to add in the meantime to the previous answers I have given on this subject.

Will the Regulations be issued as soon as possible? Is the right hon. Gentleman aware that as the holiday season approaches it becomes a very serious matter?

There are Regulations issued and provision is being made, but as there is some criticism of the present provisions the whole matter is being brought before the Advisory Committee which represents the doctors and the approved societies.

Can the right hon. Gentleman give any assurance that a definite arrangement which will meet criticism will be arrived at before the holiday season comes?

I recognise as much as the hon. Gentleman the urgency of the question.

asked the Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether it is the practice to grant a Saturday half-holiday to the women clerks in the National Health Insurance Commission (England); and, if so, whether when employed upon overtime they are required either to forego the half-holiday or to sacrifice the pay for the first three hours of any overtime they may work; and whether the women clerks who were transferred from the Post Office (where they received payment at the usual overtime rates for all work done on Saturday afternoons) to the National Health Insurance (England) were so transferred on the understanding that the conditions of their employment would remain unaltered; and, if so, will he take steps to ensure that all overtime Saturday afternoon work done by these clerks shall be paid for?

In regard to the first part of the question, the arrangements for Saturday half-holidays in the Insurance Commission are governed by the Order in Council which allows alternate Saturday afternoons subject only to the requirements of public business. As regards the second part, the ordinary arrangements apply, under which six full working days a week must have been completed before any question of overtime (i.e., work in excess of the complement of such working days) can arise. The reply to the third part is that transfers to these (as in all other) cases are made subject to the conditions of overtime prevailing in the Department to which the officer is transferred. The fourth part of the question accordingly does not arise. The question of allowing a Saturday afternoon each week instead of alternate Saturdays in Government Departments is under consideration.

asked the President of the Board of Trade the total number of persons insured under Part II. of the National Insurance Act, the total number of persons who have received unemployment benefit, and the amount of money paid for the said benefit?

The total number of workpeople to whom unemployment books were issued up to the 15th March was 2,359,320. The total number of claims to benefit made direct to the Labour Exchanges and allowed by the insurance officers up to the 12th March was 163,717, and the total amount of the payments made in respect of these direct claims was approximately £105,000. The amount repayable up to that date to associations having arrangements with the Board of Trade under Section 105 of the Act, is not yet precisely known, but the number of claims of members of associations allowed up to the 12th March was 52,591, so that the total payments and refunds in respect of all claims during the period of about two months ending 12th March may be roughly estimated at about £140,000.

May I ask whether the Free Labour Association, which claims to have a membership of about 1,000,000 is one of the associations referred to?

I think not.

asked the Postmaster-General why a carpenter in the London engineering district who contributed under Section 53 of the National Insurance Act has been refused payment for sickness by the Department; and, as this carpenter was a contributor to the late National Telephone Company's pension fund, and was promised by the Postmaster-General that he should not suffer in any respect by transfer, what action he now proposes to take?

The officer concerned was insured under Section 53 of the National Insurance Act, instead of under the ordinary provisions of the Act, through a misapprehension. Steps are being taken by the Department to effect his insurance retrospectively in accordance with the ordinary provisions of the Act, and to pay to him, also by the Department, an amount equal to the sickness benefit to which he would have been entitled under the Act had his case been properly dealt with in the first instance. The question whether sick pay should be allowed by the Post Office to tradesmen in the engineering department, who were contributors to the late company's pension fund, was raised by a deputation I recently received, and is at present under consideration.

asked the Financial Secretary to the Treasury whether he is aware of the difficulty that members of friendly societies and trade unions experience by attending meetings of the local health committees owing to no remuneration being allowed for loss of time; and, having regard to the importance of these working men representatives and their inability to bear the loss of wages consequent upon the meetings being held in the afternoons, he will take steps to reimburse them from the Treasury, with a view of enabling them to continue their services both for the benefit of the State and the organisations which they represent?

I am afraid I can add nothing to the previous answers which I have given to this question.

Is the right hon. Gentleman aware that a large number of public men are resigning from these committees in consequence of their inability to stand the loss of time?

No, I am not aware of that; but I am sure the subject is more proper for debate than for question and answer.

asked whether a trade union which, to meet the requirements of the Insurance Commissioners, is put to the expense of reprinting its rules can charge the cost of the new rules to the health insurance administration account; and, if not, why this cannot be done, seeing that the expense in such a case is incurred for no other reason than that of administering the benefits of the National Insurance Act?

In so far as the amended rules related to the operations of the society under the National Insurance Act, the cost of printing them could be charged to the administration account of the society under the Act. When the rules have been completely revised and reprinted, the cost would have to be apportioned between the State and private sides of the society.

asked the Secretary to the Treasury whether, in order that agents in the employment of certain assurance societies under the National Insurance Act may receive competent wages for the work they perform, he will arrange that none of the 3s. 8d. per member allowed for administrative purposes is spent in any other way or, alternatively, will he arrange that, whatever proportion of this sum is saved by economical administration, such sums will only be diverted for other purposes on ascertaining that reasonable payment is made to such agents?

As I stated in answer to my hon. Friend the Member for Dundee on the 13th instant, the Commissioners have no power to interfere in the rates of remuneration paid to agents for such work as they do for the National Insurance Act in addition to their normal work, as this is a matter to be settled between themselves and the societies employing them. The funds of a society are held for the benefit of the members, to whose advantage any saving due to economical administration accrues.

Is it not competent for the Treasury to see that anything that is saved can be diverted to this purpose?

Anything saved in this way is used for the benefit of the members in order to give them increased medical benefits.

asked the Secretary to the Treasury whether the additional Grant is being withheld from any Scottish university; and, if so, why?

It is proposed to pay the full Grant this year to all the Scottish universities, subject in the case of Edinburgh University to the appointment of a committee (as has already been done by Glasgow University) to consider the establishment of an inclusive fee in medicine.

asked the Secretary to the Treasury whether, in the event of a Public Record Office being established in Wales for Welsh public records, he will undertake that only records dealing exclusively with Wales shall be removed to such office?

The recommendation of the Royal Commission on Public Records for the transfer to Wales of Welsh records does not appear to go beyond records dealing exclusively with Wales. As no decision has yet been reached upon it, I do not think it desirable to give the undertaking suggested by the hon. Member.

Is the right hon. Gentleman aware that there is much apprehension on the subject in Cheshire?

I am not aware of the fact. No decision has been come to up to the present.

asked the Secretary to the Treasury whether the total Civil Service Estimates, including those on other Estimates relating to health insurance, for the year 1913–14 amount to £6,991,844; and whether the estimate of the Government actuaries for the same year was £3,852,500?

The figure given by the hon. Gentleman appears to include the special Grant of £125,000 for the general treatment of tuberculosis amongst uninsured persons and £127,335 in respect of the National Insurance Audit Department. The cost of this latter service in relation to health insurance is also shown in the notes to the other Estimates, and thus appears twice over in the hon. Member's figure. The correct figure is thus £6,739,509. The amount included in this sum in respect of the State proportion of benefits and of the cost of administration of benefits (including contributions to the Navy and Army Special Fund and on account of low-paid labour) is £4,006,850–about £43,000 less than the actuarial estimate, which, as the hon. Member will see from paragraph 16 of Cd. 5983, was £4,050,000. The sum of £3,852,500 quoted by the hon. Member does not include the State contribution in respect of deposit contributors. The balance of £6,739,509–£2,733,000–is due as regards £1,877,000 to the special Medical Grant, and as regards the remainder to the cost of the central administration, which was expressly excluded from the actuaries' estimate.

asked the President of the Board of Trade whether he is aware that the decision has been come to by English and Scotch railway companies insisting on the full name and address of the consignee being attached to every package of butter and eggs exported from Ireland to England and Scotland; that the system for the last forty years has been to consign the goods to English and Scotch termini to the order of the Irish trader; whether the new regulation is at all a legal one; whether this is an innovation calculated to strike a serious blow at the butter and egg trade between the two countries; whether notice of this revolutionary change has been given by the Railway Clearing House only ten or fourteen days ago, and whether, in view of these facts, he will urge its immediate with- drawal, or at least postponement, in order to avoid the difficulty and inconvenience caused thereby at the coming market at Cookstown, county Tyrone, and elsewhere throughout Ireland, on Saturday, 29th March?

I am aware that the British and Irish railway companies have announced their intention of requiring that all goods consigned by rail, with certain exceptions, shall in future be sufficently addressed, but I understand that the British companies are prepared to accept a distinguishing mark and the name of the station of destination as sufficient. The question whether the requirement is a legal one is not a matter upon which I can express an opinion, but I should be glad to consider any case in which it is represented that real hardship will be caused.

Can the right hon. Gentleman say whether the Regulations apply to Danish butter and other foreign imports as well as to Irish produce?

I should like notice of that question.