§ MR. LOUGH (Islington, W.)I beg to ask the President of the Local Government Board if he could state to the House how many audit districts there are in which the work is so heavy that 33 temporary assistance has to be sent every year; also, how many audit districts there are in which the work is so light that it should not employ the whole of the working year of the auditor; and whether he proposes to improve the present arrangement of audit districts which appears to necessitate the employment of a, larger number of assistant auditors than is actually required?
§ THE PRESIDENT OF THE LOCAL GOVERNMENT BOARDThe number of districts referred to in the first paragraph of the Question is 32. There are no districts of the kind mentioned in the second paragraph. The subject of a rearrangement of the audit districts was considered by the Departmental Committee which sat in 1897, and they recommended that any permanent settlement of the question should be deferred until the experience of the next three years had become available. I do not propose therefore to alter the districts at the present time, but I am not aware that the present arrangement necessitates the employment of a larger number of assistant auditors than is actually required.