asked the Financial Secretary to the Treasury if he will give particulars, in each of the last three complete years, of the amounts provided by the Exchequer under the contributory and non-contributory pension Acts, the totals to include the amounts spent in supplementary pensions.

The amounts provided by the Exchequer under the Contributory Pensions Acts in respect of the cost of pensions to persons up to the age of 70, in the years ending 31st March, 1941, 1942 and 1943 were approximately £20.5 million, £21.5 million, and £22.5 million respectively. Non-contributory old age pensions, and pensions to persons of 70 and upwards paid by virtue of the Contributory Pensions Acts are provided on the Old Age Pensions Vote. Expenditure on such pensions in the three years referred to was approximately £49.2 million, £50.3 million, and £52.2 million. The expenditure in these years on Supplementary Pensions was approximately £15.4 million, £27.2 million, and £37.6 million. It follows that the total amounts provided by the Exchequer in these years were approximately £85.1 million, £99 million and £112.3 million.

asked the Chancellor of the Exchequer the amounts allowed by the Board of Inland Revenue from profits in respect of depreciation or replacement of capital assets for the fiscal years 1937–38, 1938–39, 1939–40, 1940–41, 1941–42 and 1942–43, including allowances made by virtue of the provisions of the 1941 Finance Act.

The total amounts of wear and tear allowed as deductions from the Schedule D assessments on trading profits are estimated as follow:

asked the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he is aware that there is a certain amount of concern in the country in regard to the allowance for Income fax purposes to widowers with housekeepers, namely, £80 and £50= £130, while the married man's allowance for himself and wife is £140; and whether he can see his way to making the allowance for a housekeeper the same as for a wife, namely, £60.

I regret that I cannot see my way to proposing an increase in the housekeeper allowance.

asked the Minister of Health if, in regard to suspects under 33B, he will state how many men and women, respectively, ware reported as alleged sources of infection; were brought under treatment; were persons in respect of whom only one report reached medical officers of health; were persons induced to undertake treatment; and why only a proportion of those reported as alleged sources of infection are under treatment by local authorities.

Up to 30th September, 1943, the latest date to which figures are available, 213 men and 3,131 women had been reported under Regulation 33B as alleged sources of infection by persons under treatment for venereal disease. Of these 209 men and 2,907 women were the subject of one report only, and of these persons 543 were persuaded to undergo voluntary examination. With regard to the second and fourth parts of the Question figures are available only in respect of persons who were the subject of more than one report, to whom alone the compulsory provisions of the Regulation are applicable. Of these one man and 73 women had undertaken treatment voluntarily, up to 30th September, 1943, and one man and 77 women had been brought under treatment after the serving of notice. A number of the reported cases are persons who cannot be traced from the particulars given.

asked the Minister of Health how many representations he has received from various local councils pressing for legislation to define the standard of bacteriological cleanliness for all rinsings of churns, bottles, etc.; that a uniform technique for ascertaining this standard be established; and what are his observations on this particular phase of Articles 21 and 28 of the Milk and Dairies Order, 1926.

I would refer my hon. Friend to the answer given on 27th January to my hon. Friend the Member for Sedgefield (Mr. Leslie). Representations have been received from 107 local authorities.

asked the Minister of Health, in view of the rise in the ceiling limit of the cost of repairs to damaged houses, on what material the owner can confidently count to enable him to make use of the concession.

Any controlled materials necessary for the execution of work certified by a local authority will be released under the arrangements set out in Circular 2871, of which I am sending my hon. Friend a copy.

asked the President of the Board of Trade if he will consider the possibility of facilitating the post-war establishment in the Stalybridge and Hyde district of a trading estate similar to that at Treforest to encourage the development of new industries in North-East Cheshire.

The establishment of trading estates is one of the measures which His Majesty's Government have in mind in order to promote a greater variety of industry in areas where there would otherwise be a prospect of serious unemployment after the war.