§ MR.WEIR (Ross and Cromarty)To ask the Postmaster-General if he will state what sum the abolition of the practice of sending out from the Post Office Savings Bank acknowledgments of deposits under one pound is expected to save annually in postage and clerical labour respectively; and, seeing that these deposits represent 60 per cent. of the whole of the deposits received by the Postmaster-General at 14,000 Post Office Savings Banks, will he state what precaution it is proposed to take to protect the Department against fraud, especially having regard to the fact that many of these savings banks are at shops where the clerks are not in the pay of the Postmaster-General.
(Answered by Lord Stanley.) It is estimated that the annual saving in postage and clerical labour through the abolition of acknowledgments for deposit under £1 will be £18,500 and £7,500 respectively. The acknowledgment is only one of the checks upon irregularities in bringing deposits to account. The other precautions are, in my opinion, fully sufficient to guard against the risk of irregularities in the case of the deposits in question, which average only 6s. each.