§ COLONEL HOWARD VINCENT (Sheffield, Central)I beg to ask the President of the Board of Trade if, having regard to the official Report that last month 13,856 members of nineteen Trade Unions were out of work, he is able to state how many were unemployed in the remaining 240 Trade 450 Unions, with 616,000 members, and particularly how many were out of work among unskilled labourers?
§ A LORD OF THE TREASURY (Sir HERBERT MAXWELL,) WigtonMy right, hon. Friend has asked me to answer the question, and to say: I understand that the information already given by the Labour Commission is as complete as it can be made. It is impossible to obtain the exact numbers of unemployed members of Trades Unions, except in the case of such Unions as keep a registry of the unemployed for out-of-work benefit or other purposes. But only a limited number of Unions pay out-of-work benefit and a much less number publish monthly returns; all the important Societies, which are able to do so, send their returns to the Board of Trade.