asked the Minister of Labour whether there are any records kept in the various local Employment Exchanges in Lanarkshire of the number of ex-service disabled men who have made application for unemployed benefit during the year 1927 and for the six months ended 30th June, 1928, and, if so, what number has been admitted to benefit; and whether there are any means by which coalowners who have signed the King's Roll can be approached by the local Exchange officials to aid in the securing of employment for such numbers as have had their claims disallowed?

I have been asked to reply. My right hon. Friend regrets that records such as those referred to by the hon. Member are not kept, and statistics giving the information desired in the first part of the question are therefore not available. Local King's Roll committees make every effort to find employment for disabled ex-service men, whether or not they are in receipt of unemployment benefit. In this connection an appeal is made to all employers, but, in respect of coal mining, regard must be had to the fact that the industry finds employment for a number of men who have been disabled while working in the mines.

asked the Minister of Labour the number of employers in the coal-mining industry who have signed the King's Roll to employ ex-service disabled men in England, Scotland and Wales, respectively; and the numbers employed?

I have been asked to reply. This information, which is kept locally, is being collected, and will be sent to the hon. Member as soon as possible.

asked the Minister of Labour how many men classified as unskilled labourers were registered as unemployed at all Employment Exchanges in the Metropolitan areas on 30th June and 7th July of this year?

I have been asked to reply. Statistics are available only in respect of Monday, 25th June. On that date there were 29,093 male adult unskilled labourers on the registers of Employment Exchanges in the Greater London area.

asked the Minister of Labour whether, in connection with a recent advertisement issued by the Bristol Employment Exchange for a secretary for the National Nautical School, Portishead, the post was filled from among the applicants who answered the advertisement?

I have been asked to reply. My right hon. Friend is having inquiries made, and will communicate with the hon. Member as soon as possible.

asked the Prime Minister whether, seeing that the annual sum of £1,200 for grants of pensions on the Civil List for those persons who, inter alia, by their useful discoveries in science and attainments in literature and the arts have merited the gracious consideration of their Sovereign and the gratitude of their country, was passed by Parliament in 1834, he will, in view of the change in the value of money since that date, introduce legislation to increase the amount of the sum so allocated?

I would refer my hon. Friend to the answer given by the Chancellor of the Exchequer on 25th July, 1927, in reply to a question by my hon. Friend the Member for Devizes (Mr. Hurd), of which I am sending him a copy.

asked the Minister of Pensions what area War pension districts will be included in the proposed South Metropolitan area; where the chief area office and the area sub-offices will be situated; what offices will be closed or have the hours of opening reduced; what will be the farthest distance that a pensioner may be living from the area pension office; what period would elapse before he was visited by a medical officer of the Ministry in the event of making an application by post for treatment; and, in the event of there being an interval of several days, if treatment allowance will be paid from the date of application for treatment and not from the date of visitation?

No South Metropolitan area is proposed. Arrangements are, however, in progress, in which the committees concerned have concurred, for the formation of a South-East Metropolitan area with headquarters in Tower Bridge Road, and the necessary sub-offices to cover the work now administered from offices in Bermondsey, Lewisham and Woolwich. The number and character of the sub-offices will be settled after consultation with the War Pensions Committees concerned, so far as this has not already been done. The farthest distance from the headquarters office of the new area will be in the Dartford district, but pensioners there will have the use of the sub office at Woolwich. Emergency arrangements for immediate medical examination apply as hitherto, and in any case applications by post would be dealt with in 48 hours. It is not considered necessary to make any change in the present arrangements for the payment of treatment allowances.

asked the Minister of Pensions what areas it is proposed to include in the new West Metropolitan area, where the chief area office will be situated, and the position of the area sub-offices; what whole- or part-time offices will be closed or the hours of opening reduced; and whether he will arrange for the payment of travelling expenses for pensioners visiting the area office who live more than three miles from the office?

No new West Metropolitan area is at present in contemplation. The remainder of the question does not therefore arise.

asked the Minister of Pensions what areas are to be included in the North Metropolitan area; how many war pension offices will be closed in the districts affected; and, seeing that in some cases men may have to travel over 20 miles to visit the area office, if he will make provision for the payment of travelling expenses for pensioners living more than three miles from a war pension office?

No new North Metropolitan area is at present in contemplation. The remainder of the question does not therefore arise.

asked the Attorney-General whether he has received complaints respecting the form of letters headed "County Court Department" issued by the Waverley Book Company, Limited, Cornwall Buildings, 45, Newhall Street, Birmingham, to purchasers of books upon the instalment system; and whether he will investigate the matter view a view to appropriate action?

The answer to the first part of the question is in the affirmative. Whilst I am not satisfied that the form of the letters referred to amounts to a breach of Section 180 of the County Courts Act, 1888, I regard it as open to grave objection, and I will consider whether it is possible to make representations to this effect to the company concerned.

asked the President of the Board of Education whether his attention has been called to the statement of the Monmouthshire County Council that from 8 to 10 per cent. of their school children are suffering from under-nourishment consequent on local unemployment; and what steps he is taking in the matter?

A survey of all the schools in the area has recently been carried out by the medical officers of the local authority, and indicates that only in the Nantyglo and Blaina group of schools does the percentage of children suffering from malnutrition reach the figure mentioned in the question. In this district the local authority are providing meals for the children, and they are at present in communication with the Board as regards the general position in the area. I may add that the results of the recent survey bear out the general estimate of the situation which I gave the House on 26th March last on the basis of the investigations carried out by the Board's medical officers at the beginning of the year, and they appear to show that there has been no deterioration in health during the last few months.

asked the Home Secretary whether he is aware that, under the law as it exists at present, it is possible to subpoena a young child to give evidence in criminal proceedings against its parent; and will he consider the introduction of legislation to render it impossible to take evidence in these circumstances of children under 14 years of age?

It is, I think, clearly necessary that such evidence should, under proper safeguards, be available in the interests of justice.

asked the Home Secretary whether he is now in a position to announce his decision as to the appointment of further London police magistrates to the maximum fixed by Statute?

Yes, Sir. It is proposed to bring the number of Metropolitan police magistrates up to the statutory maximum of 27, instead of 25, the present number. One of the additional appointments will be permanent; the other, purely temporary, pending an authoritative inquiry, to be instituted this Autumn, into the whole work of the Courts, their organisation and arrangements, and into such questions as the possibility of devolving work upon county justices.

asked the Home Secretary whether he will consider the introduction of legislation giving magistrates of summary Courts of Justice the power to enforce the withholding from publication of the names of any accused persons who have been charged with either indecency or street offences, and who have been discharged through insufficient evidence or police mistakes generally; and will he consider in any future legislation the same protection to witnesses who may be called to give corroborative evidence in such charges?

I see no reason to differentiate the practice in regard to street offences from other and more serious ones of which persons may be acquitted.

asked the Chancellor of the Exchequer whether a person in receipt of a salary of £4,000 a year in addition to his private income, and who is liable for Surtax and Super-tax on his total income in 1928, will be assessed for 1929 on his 1928 income, and if he will be charged Super-tax and Surtax on his assessment, even though he may no longer be in receipt of his salary of £4,000 in 1929.

No, Sir. If the person in question vacated the office before 6th April, 1929, he would not be assessed for the year 1929 either to Income Tax or to Surtax on the salary attaching to it, as he would have ceased to possess this source of income.

asked the Chancellor of the Exchequer the yield of the Betting Duty for June, 1928; and what was the yield of the Betting Duty for the first three months in 1928 and the corresponding yield for the first three months in 1927?

The approximate amount derived from betting taxation in June, 1928, was £319,700. The amounts derived therefrom in the first three months of the current financial year and the corresponding period of the last financial year were £811,800 and £901,200 respectively.

asked the Chancellor of the Exchequer the number of prosecutions for irregularities since the introduction of the Betting Duty?

The total number of prosecutions instituted by the Customs and Excise Department up to 30th June for evasion of Betting Duty or failure to take out a bookmaker's certificate was 1,733.

asked the Minister of Health if his attention has been called to the objections raised by the residents in the Oxford Road district of Manchester to the proposed removal of the tuberculosis clinic from Hardman Street to that district; and what action he intends to take?

The answer to the first part of the question is in the affirmative. I propose to arrange for a local inquiry before coming to a decision on this proposal.

asked the Minister of Health, whether his attention has been called to the suggestion made by the Middlesex joint vagrancy committee to the Surrey vagrancy committee that, in view of the congestion in neighbouring casual wards in Middlesex, in particular those of the Brentford union, they should reopen the Richmond wards; whether this appeal was taken into account by the Ministry of Health inspector, who staged that such a step was unnecessary; and on what facts this inspector based his decision?

I have carefully considered this suggestion, but I am unable to accept the view submitted by the vagrancy committee. I do not think that the multiplication of casual wards in close proximity to one another, especially in the neighbourhood of London, is conducive to good administration or that such procedure can be relied on to reduce congestion in a particular ward. I may say that rather more than a year ago I required the reopening of the Kingston wards, but this has in no way relieved the position of Brentford.

asked the Minister of Health (1) the number of persons in receipt of disablement benefit under National Health Insurance, with the number in each industry; and the estimated number that are permanently incapacitated and unlikely to return to their occupation;(2) the number of persons in each industry totally incapacitated and receiving compensation under the Workmen's Compensation Acts who are rendering medical certificates to their approved society or as deposit contributors so that they retain their rights as insured persons?

The information asked for by the hon. Member is not available, and could only be obtained as the result of special investigations by, and returns from, each of the 7,000 approved societies and branches administering National Health Insurance.

asked the Minister of Health the number of notices relating to repairs required to house and shop property belonging to the Cadogan Syndicate No. 3 issued in each of the last five years by the Chelsea Borough Council.

The following particulars, which have been obtained from the borough council, give the information desired so far as it is available, of the number of notices issued in respect of the property of the Cadogan Syndicate No. 3:—

Intimation Notices:
1924	…	121
1925	…	107
1926	…	130
1927	…	219
1928 (up to 10th July)	…	125
Statutory Notices:
1924	…	85
1925	…	45
1926	…	26
1927	…	38
1928 (up to 10th July)	…	21

It is understood that, with the exception of a few outstanding current cases, the works required under the Statutory notices have been carried out.

asked the Minister of Health whether, in view of the fact that the cases of small-pox occurring in London at the present time are so mild as to be hardly distinguishable from chicken-pox, and also of the fact that certain medical men believe they are not small-pox at all but alastrim or a new disease, he will issue fresh regulations permitting medical officers of health to leave them in their own homes and not put the patients to the discomfort and the ratepayers to the expense of having them removed to the small-pox hospital.

I am advised that the small-pox now prevalent in this country should not be confused with chicken-pox or some new disease; and in view of the risks to the public health which would be involved by its further spread, I am not prepared to countenance the course suggested by the hon. Member.