MR. WEBSTERI beg to ask the President of the Local Government Board whether his attention has been called to the Parliamentary Return laid upon the Table, giving the expenses incurred by the Metropolitan Board of Works and the London County Council in promoting and opposing Bills before Parliament in each year from 1886 to 1891; and whether, in view of the fact that whilst for the three years, from 1886 to 1888, the total expenditure of the former body was £13,924, or an annual expenditure of £4,641 for these purposes, and that the expenditure of the London County Council in the following three years, from 1889 to 1891, amounted to £33,078, or an annual expenditure of £11,026, he will, in connection with the London County Council Money Bill or otherwise, investigate the matter with the view, if practicable, of controlling this expenditure?
§ THE PRESIDENT OF THE LOCAL GOVERNMENT BOARD (Mr. H. H. FOWLER, Wolverhampton, E.)The expenses which have been incurred by the London County Council in promoting and opposing Bills in Parliament have been incurred by them in pursuance of their statutory powers and in the interests of the ratepayers of the County of London, of whom they are the representatives, and to whom they are responsible. I am not prepared to make any investigation of the matter as suggested.
MR. WEBSTERDoes not the Government Auditor inspect the accounts, and is not the amount three times as much as it was four years ago?
§ MR. H. H. FOWLERThis is a matter in which the County Council exercise their own judgment.