asked the Secretary to the Treasury if the new insurance stamps for use in Ireland are being printed in England; and when it is proposed to make separate contracts for Irish requirements, so that Irish printers may have an opportunity for tendering for the work in Ireland?

All the insurance stamps are being printed in England. Only one contract is made for the printing of these stamps, and it would not be economical to divide this very special work amongst several contractors.

asked the Secretary to the Treasury the conditions of employment as to wages, hours of labour, and the number of days employed each week, of the temporary clerks employed at 13, Bath Street, Glasgow, under the National Insurance Act?

The rate of remuneration of the temporary clerks in question is 7½d. per hour. The number of hours per day is ordinarily eight, and number of days per week is six. A small number of young girls receive 6d. per hour.

asked the President of the Board of Trade whether, under Part II. of the National Insurance Act, employers will be at liberty to mark the unemployment books of workmen in their employ with the pay numbers or other identification numbers of the workmen?

:Regulation 5 (1) of the Unemployment Insurance Regulations provides that on the termination of a workman's employment the employer shall forthwith return the unemployment book to the workman without any note or mark of any kind made in, affixed to, or impressed on it, other than any such mark as is required for the purpose of cancelling in accordance with these Regulations any stamp affixed to the book. There is nothing to prevent employers from placing the pay number or other identification mark of the workman on his unemployment book, either by writing in pencil or by marking, or attaching a mark, in some other way, providing that the mark is effectively removed before the return of the book to the workman.

asked the President of the Board of Trade on what day in the week ending 13th July the Board of Trade "Gazette" will appear; and up to what date will that issue of the "Gazette" bring its record of decisions given by the Umpire under the unemployment part of the National Insurance Act?

The Board of Trade journal is published every Thursday, and all decisions of the Umpire which are received up to the time of going to press on Wednesday, 10th July, will be included in the journal published on Thursday, the 11th. I may add that the monthly Board of Trade Labour "Gazette" will appear on 16th July, and will include decisions given up to and including Saturday, 13th July. I am presenting a Return to the House of the decisions of the Umpire.

asked the President of the Board of Trade what will be the position of a man who, as a bricklayer's labourer, has been called upon to pay insurance contributions under Part II. of the National Insurance Act for some months, leaves that employment, and gets work as a farm labourer; will he have to continue insurance contributions under Part II.; and, if not, is any allowance made to him in respect of the payments he has been compelled to make whilst so insured?

A workman is only liable to contribute under Part II. of the National Insurance Act while he is actually working at an insured trade. If, as in the case mentioned by the hon. Member, a workman having been engaged at an insured trade takes other work his liability to contribute under Part II. of the Act ceases until he resumes work at an insured trade. If he becames unemployed subsequently to his leaving the insured trades he does not lose the right to benefit, but can, subject to the fulfilment of the statutory conditions, obtain unemployment benefit in proportion to the contributions which he has already made; or, if he does not draw benefit, he can at age sixty obtain a refund of the contributions under Section 95.

asked the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he will state what official status has a body calling itself the National Health Insurance Pharmaceutical Standing Committee (Scotland); are individual pharmacists debarred from intimating direct to the Insurance Commissioners their ability or willingness to undertake pharmacy work under the Act or their readiness to submit proposals, or must they make applications to be placed on local panels for pharmacy service (Scotland) through the National Health Insurance, Pharmaceutical Standing Committee (Scotland) and, should a pharmacist ignore circulars which the National Health Insurance Pharmaceutical Standing Committee (Scotland) are issuing and not forward his name to this committee, will he be passed over when the arrangements with local pharmacists are made; are the Insurance Commissioners asking voluntary contributions to defray expenses of circularising chemists, etc.; and, if the National Health Insurance Pharmaceutical Standing Committee (Scotland) has no official standing, will instructions be issued to the Commissioners to ignore any list of local panels for pharmacy service in Scotland that may be submitted to them by that committee?

:The "Pharmaceutical Standing Committee (Scotland) on National Health Insurance" has no official status. Under Section 15 (5) it will be the duty of the Insurance Committee in each area to make arrangements subject to the Regulations of the Commissioners and the Joint Committee for the supply and dispensing of drugs and medicines. The panel of chemists will be prepared by the insurance committees subject to appeal to the Commissioners, and due consideration would be given to any representations made either by any committee of chemists or by individual chemists. Section 15 of the Act secures the right of every duly qualified chemist to be placed upon a panel. The Commissioners have issued no circular to chemists, and have asked for no voluntary contributions from them.

asked the Secretary to the Treasury, in how many, and what counties and county boroughs have county Insurance Committees, provisional or otherwise, now been constituted, and schemes and regulations, provisional or otherwise, drawn up and published?

Insurance Committees are now being constituted on a provisional basis for each of the county and county boroughs in Great Britain and Ireland, as required under the National Insurance Act. In most cases preliminary meetings have already been held, and it is anticipated that all the committees will meet in the course of this month.

asked whether schemes and regulations drawn up, and contracts entered into, by county and county borough Insurance Committees, provisionally constituted for the purposes of the Insurance Act, will be binding and enforceable upon the real Committees when duly appointed and approved?

:The Commissioners are issuing a Memorandum of which I will send a copy to the hon. Member dealing generally with the powers of the Committees and the extent and manner in which they should exercise these powers. Before any Committee could enter into a binding contract the consent of the Commissioners should be required, and every case would be determined by the Commissioners on its merits.

asked the Secretary to the Treasury whether he has any information as to how many doctors in the United Kingdom and Ireland have experience in the treatment of tuberculosis; and how many of such doctors have been engaged, provisionally or otherwise, by county and county borough Insurance Committees, provisional or otherwise, and by which Committees, to administer as from the 15th of July, 1912, the sanatoria benefits to those insured persons entitled to such benefits as from that date?

Most registered medical practitioners have had experience of the treatment of tuberculosis. There are no data for estimating the number of those who have had special experience and possess special skill. In reply to the second part of the question, the engagement of medical practitioners to attend insured persons suffering from tuberculosis will not usually be the function of Insurance Committees; and, so far as it falls within their province to make such arrangements, they will be made as occasions arise. I am forwarding to the hon. Member a copy of the Memorandum issued on Saturday to Insurance Committees in which the arrangements contemplated are fully explained.

asked whether any, and if any, what, local education authorities have applied for the consent of the Health Insurance Commissioners to except their uncertificated elementary school teachers from the operation of the National Insurance Act under Part II. of Schedule I.; whether any schemes for the provision of alternative benefits by such authorities have yet been approved; and, if so, whether medical benefit is entirely excluded from any such scheme?

:Applications in respect of the exception of teachers have been received from Cornwall, London County Council, Newcastle-on-Tyne, Wallasey, and Worcestershire. The schemes forwarded with these applications are now being examined, but no schemes have yet been formally certified. The Commissioners are advised that in considering such schemes they must have regard only to the provision made for payments corresponding to sickness benefit and disablement benefit.

asked the Secretary to the Treasury if he can give the name of any society which has been approved or has applied for approval for the health insurance of governesses under the National Insurance Act?

No society formed exclusively for governesses has applied for approval.

asked the Secretary to the Treasury whether a governess living with a family is entitled to add the computed value of her room and food to her salary for the purpose of calculating whether she comes under the limit of income provided in the National Insurance Act?

:The answer is in the affirmative.

asked if a crofter or small landholder who is employed for a part of the year away from his croft or small holding will have any difficulty in obtaining the benefits of the National Insurance Act if he joins an approved society and becomes a voluntary contributor when engaged on his croft or small holding?

:A crofter who is a small landowner and employed part of the year away from his croft will have no difficulty if he joins an approved society in continuing in insurance by adding payments made by himself when working without an employer to the payments made by his employer in respect of him while he is a compulsorily insured person.

asked the Secretary to the Treasury if he is aware that the Metropolitan Railway Mutual Provident Society has recently submitted new rules to the Registrar of Friendly Societies, and has stated to its members that the alteration of the rules has been rendered necessary by the insolvent state of the society's funds as disclosed by the actuary's report and also to meet the requirements of the Commissioners in order to become an approved society, and that these rules provide, inter alia, that a member on attaining the age of seventy shall cease to receive any benefits from the society other than funeral expenses; whether he is aware that a number of other societies are taking similar steps, although they have hitherto been able to carry out all their obligations; whether such a case as that of a member of the Metropolitan Railway Mutual Provident Society who has been a member of such society since the year 1877 and has during that period contributed 8d. per week to the funds of the society, thus making his total contributions, apart from interest, over £60, but who, owing to his having reached the age of seventy, is not insurable under the National Insurance Act, 1911, and under the proposed new rules will in future obtain no benefit from his society except a payment of £16 for funeral expenses, has been considered by the Insurance Commissioners; and whether it is proposed to make any provision for such cases in order to compensate such members for the loss they will sustain owing to the passing of the said Act and the effect of such Act upon the smaller societies?

The Metropolitan Railway Mutual Provident Society has recently submitted a complete amendment of rules to the Registrar of Friendly Societies, which provides, inter alia, that on attaining the age of 70 all members shall become exempt from contributions and shall receive no benefit from the society other than funeral benefit. The amendment appears to be proposed with a view of reducing the very heavy deficiency, which is disclosed by the valuation of the society. Some other societies have adopted, it is believed, similar amendments for a similar purpose. The amendment is due to the cause above mentioned, and does not appear to be due to the passing of the Insurance Act.

asked if a casual labourer who renders assistance to a farmer in getting in hay becomes an insured person?

:The answer is in the affirmative.

asked the Secretary to the Treasury whether the representatives on health committees of insured persons who have insured under the National Insurance Act with insurance companies will be selected by the persons so insured or by the Insurance Commissioners, or nominated by the directors of the companies with which these persons are insured?

A certain number of the representatives of insured persons on the committees which are now being constituted on a provisional basis have been selected by the Association of Industrial Assurance Officers as also by the central representative bodies of friendly societies and trade unions. Regulations for the appointment of representatives of insured persons in accordance with the provisions of Section 59 of the Act will be made in due course.

asked the Secretary to the Treasury whether he is aware that a firm of employers in Portsmouth have informed their workpeople, who have declared a trade union as their approved society, that they will either have to leave their employment or choose another approved society; and whether steps will now be taken by the Insurance Commissioners to counteract the pressure and intimidation that is being exercised by employers on their workpeople in connection with the choice of an approved society?

asked the Secretary to the Treasury if his attention has been called to the fact that employers of labour continue, under cover of the National Insurance Act, to issue circulars to their workmen calling for information contrary to the spirit of the Act; if he has yet taken any steps to stop the practice; and is he aware, for instance, that the Lancashire Dynamo and Motor Company are asking their workpeople if they belong to a friendly society or union, and that Messrs. Hollins, of Glasgow, are coercing their workmen to joing the Prudential Company?

A report has been received as to the case referred in the second question, and inquiry is now being made. I should be glad if my hon. Friend would furnish the Commissioners with further information as to the case mentioned in the first question. As I have previously stated, employers have no right or excuse under the Act for exercising any pressure, direct or indirect, on their employÉs to join a particular society or for requiring to know which society they have joined.

asked what sum each week taxi-cab drivers who are subjected to compulsory insurance under Part I. of the National Insurance Act, although they are not paid wages, will have to pay?

The contribution payable by the driver will be at the rate appropriate to his earnings in accordance with the Second Schedule to the Act.

asked the Secretary to the Treasury if he is aware that only employers of domestic servants are yet able to obtain insurance cards at post offices; and if he will immediately issue a form to enable the employer of any other kind of worker to obtain the cards?

Any employer can obtain a supply of cards for those of his employÉs who have not obtained them for themselves by application to the Insurance Commissioners at 55, Whitehall, London, S.W. Hitherto the supply of cards under this arrangement has been as a rule limited to 10 per cent. of the number of persons employed, as the Commissioners hope that the number of employed persons who fail to obtain their cards through the ordinary channels by 15th July will be comparatively small, now that the issue of cards by approved societies to their members is being conducted on a large scale. If, however, any employer has now ascertained that his men have not obtained cards for themselves, he will be able to obtain cards for as many of them as he desires by writing to the Insurance Commission.

asked the Secretary to the Treasury if his attention has been directed to the fact that Form No. 1, A. G. D., issued to the Post Office by the Insurance Commissioners for the use of those who desire to obtain an insurance card from a post office. Is in some quarters misunderstood and thought to make the person who signs it a deposit contributor; if he is aware that some Post Office officials who issue these forms have this erroneous belief; and if he will remodel the form in such manner as to make it impossible for this misunderstanding to continue?

My right hon. Friend the Postmaster-General informs me that he has recently supplemented the instructions to the postal service by a special explanation in regard to the point raised by my right hon. Friend. I have also had a notice issued to the Press to the same effect. I take this opportunity of repeating, in case any misconception still exists, that the issue of a card at a post office to an employed contributor does not constitute the recipient a deposit contributor; that the cards, whether issued by approved societies or from the Post Office, are exactly the same in character, and that no employed contributor can become a deposit contributor until the middle of next October.

asked the Secretary to the Treasury whether it is intended, as would appear from the insurance official explanatory leaflet, No. 18, paragraph 5, that, in the event of a dispute as to the amount of deduction from an employed person's wages, the difference between the amount deducted pending the Commissioners' decision and the amount eventually settled by them should be recoverable only if in favour of the employed person, and not if in favour of the employer; and, if so, whether he can state why the rule in such cases is not the same for both parties?

Subsequent deductions of wages of the kind suggested are prohibited under paragraph (3) of the Third Schedule of the Act. Where there is a dispute as to the proper deduction, however, the employer may (as stated in the leaflet) deduct the amount which he himself considers correct conditionally upon subsequent reimbursement to the workman if the claim of the latter should prove to have been correct.

asked the Secretary to the Treasury if he is aware that under the directions given in the insurance official explanatory leaflet, No. 18, paragraph 3, for calculating the rate of remuneration, by which the rate of wage is held to be the total weekly wage divided by six, an employed person receiving l1s. 6d. for a week of 5½ days' work will be held to be receiving only 1s. 11d. a day, though he is in fact receiving 2s. 1d. a day, and his employer will therefore be compelled to pay a weekly contribution of 5d. instead of 4d.; whether it is proposed by this method of calculation is to be enforced against the employer; and, if not, whether he will at once take steps to have these misleading directions altered or withdrawn?

:The Commissioners are advised that the instructions contained in the leaflet represent the legal effect of the Act, and they therefore propose to adhere to them.

asked who is responsible for the employers' and the employÉs contributions under the Insurance Act in the case of collieries and mills where the but-tee or contract system prevails, under which the butteeman or contractor and not the owner of such collieries or mills employs and pays the sub-contractors?

If the employÉs work under the general control and management of the owner of the colliery or the occupier of the factory (but not otherwise) the owner or occupier, as the case may be, will be responsible for the payment of the Insurance contributions. The owner or occupier in that case will be entitled to deduct the workmen's share of the contributions from his payments to the subcontractor and the latter will make the necessary deduction from the wages of the workmen.

asked what period of time is covered by the words temporary disablement referred to in the National Health Insurance (Share Fishermen) Order, 1912 (No. 1)?

:The wording in the special Order is "sickness or temporary disablement." What the Order requires is the existence of a local custom by which a member of the crew is entitled to continue to receive his share in the profits after he has fallen sick or become temporarily disabled. No definite time requires to be laid down for this purpose.

asked the Secretary to the Treasury whether a member of a crew of a fishing vessel, where the crew are paid partly by wages and partly by shares in the profits or gross earnings of the working of the vessel, will be liable to insurance under Part I. of the National Insurance Act?

:The answer is in the affirmative.

asked the Secretary to the Treasury whether the Insurance Commissioners intend to exempt attendants in Lancashire county asylums from compulsory insurance under paragraph ( b ) of the second part of the First Schedule of the National Insurance Act; and, if not, will they explain in what respects the conditions of employment of attendants in Lancashire county asylums are inferior to the benefits secured by the Act?

:No formal application has yet been received from the authorities responsible for these asylums for the attendants employed in them to be excepted under the paragraph referred to.

asked the Secretary to the Treasury if it is ultra vires for an approved society, under the National Insurance Act, to employ paid canvassers to obtain members; and, if not, if he will at once introduce an amending Act to stop the practice, in view of the evils which are arising from it?

:The answer to the first part of the question is in the negative. I am unable to propose legislation as suggested in the second part of the question.

asked the Secretary to the Treasury if he is aware that the Prudential Insurance Company, through an approved society section under the National Insurance Act, is endeavouring to monopolise the local administration of the Act by employing a very large number of commission men to obtain members; if he knows that the company has stated that on a single day it secured 170,000 applications for membership; if it is contrary to the spirit and intention of the Act that a profit-making institution should thus obtain possession of the right to administer its benefits; and what he proposes to do in order that the intention of the Act should not be thwarted?

The National Insurance Act, while requiring that societies carried on for profit shall not become approved societies, certainly contemplates separate sections being formed in connection with profit-making businesses, and becoming approved. The accounts of such separate sections must be distinct, and any surplus must go entirely to the benefit of the insured persons, and not to that of the company in connection with which the section was formed.

asked whether, in the case of clubs where a doctor is provided free for all the servants, he can say whether the contributions of these servants will be reduced by the amount which would be required if the services of a doctor were included?

The Act does not provide for any reduction of contribution in the circumstances described; but the cost of the remuneration of the doctor may be borne by the Insurance Fund, to which insured servants will contribute for medical benefit.

asked the Secretary to the Treasury whether, in view of the fact that the National Insurance Act provides that the employer shall deduct the workman's contribution and pay his own contribution, he proposes to withdraw and contradict the leaflet issued by the National Insurance Commission which states that it is the duty of the employer of a female servant to pay 6d. per week, and that the employer may deduct 3d. per week from the servant's wages?

:As I stated in answer to my hon. Friend the Member for Wilton on the 11th ultimo, the Act does not provide that the employer "shall deduct the workman's contribution." Under Section 4 (2) of the Act he is "entitled to recover from the contributor by deduction from wages or otherwise the amount of the contributions paid by him on behalf of the contributor." The official leaflet stating the law on the matter is entirely correct, and any statement that a penalty is imposed on the employer who does not recover the amount from the servant would be entirely incorrect.

asked the Secretary to the Treasury whether under the National Insurance Act, if an employer duly stamps an emergency card in default of the ordinary card and gives it to his employÉ, he has done his duty under the Act and is not subject to any penalty; and whether, if after that the employÉ loses or destroys the card, or fails to join an approved society, or fails to take his card to an approved society or to the Post Office at the end of the quarter, the loss will be his and not the employers?

:The answer is in the affirmative.

asked the Secretary to the Treasury whether he is prepared, in making Regulations for the transfer of members from one approved society to another, to assure members that the names of the approved societies will not be divulged to the employer, and so ensure the secrecy as promised by the Chancellor of the Exchequer during the passage through Parliament of this Act?

The arrangements made by the Insurance Commissioners will not require the name of the society to which an insured person is transferring to be communicated to his employer, and any such communications would be contrary to the system contemplated in the Act.

asked the Secretary to the Treasury if he can state approximately the number of friendly or benefit societies that sprang up yearly from 1900 to 1910; how many collapsed yearly during the same period; and if he can give any estimate of the loss sustained by contributors yearly during the same period?

The number of friendly societies which were registered, and registered friendly societies which were dissolved in Great Britain and Ireland during the years 1900–1910, are as follows:—

I have no information as to any loss sustained by contributors.

asked the Secretary to the Treasury whether a mother who accepts regular assistance in house or shop from her daughter is taxable under the National Insurance Act in respect of her daughter's insurance?

In the case suggested in the question the daughter will not have to be insured unless she is employed by the mother under contract of service, whether expressed or implied, and also receives wages or some other money payment.

asked the Chancellor of the Exchequer whether complaints have been received from the Assistant Registrar of Friendly Societies in Scotland that he has not been supplied with sufficient assistance to enable him to undertake the pressure of work thrown upon his Department by the introduction of the National Insurance Act, whereby congestion and delay have arisen; and, if so, what steps are being taken to supply further expert assistance?

An application for additional staff has been received from the Assistant Registrar of Friendly Societies for Scotland, and is now under consideration by the Treasury.

asked the Secretary to the Treasury whether he is aware of the fact that several societies, whose membership is recruited from men employed in His Majesty's dockyards, applying for approval under the National Insurance Act have not yet obtained a certificate of approval; and, seeing that in many cases the members of these societies have filled in their application forms, will he say when they may expect to receive their National Health Insurance cards?

:One society of the kind has been approved, and another has submitted its rules, which are now under examination. Several other societies have communicated with the Commissioners, but have not yet made formal application. Members of such societies can obtain their cards from the Post Office, and the cards so obtained will be exactly the same in character as if they had been given by the societies.