§ MR. BROOKE (Tower Hamlets, Bow and Bromley)To ask the President of the Local Government Board whether the Central Unemployed Committee for London has initiated any schemes for dealing this winter with applicants for employment, who are eligible under the Unemployed Workmen's Act; whether he can state what those schemes are; how many of the unemployed have applied for work under them; how many who applied have been rejected as not complying with the conditions of the Act; and how many of those applicants who do comply with its conditions have received any employment at all.
§ (Answered by Mr. John Burns.) I understand that the Central (Unemployed) Body for London have been in communication with His Majesty's Office of Works, the London County Council, and the metropolitan borough councils, and it is hoped that from 1,500 to 2,000 of the unemployed will very soon be engaged upon works provided by these bodies. The Central Body are now employing some 530 men on work at the Garden City, on the farm colony at Hollesley Bay, and on making a sea-wall at Fambridge. They are also carrying on three workrooms for women, and 107 women are employed there. I am not able to state how many persons have applied to the distress committees for work since the registers were re-opened, or how many of such persons have been found to satisfy the prescribed requirements. I understand, however, that applications continue to be received by the distress committees, and that 500 persons have already been referred by them to the Central Body.