Mr. W. PEAECE (Tower Hamlets, Limehouse)To ask the Secretary to the Treasury whether commercial tests, chemical or physical, are being undertaken at the National Physical Laboratory, or are included in the circular of charges of the laboratory; and, if so, whether such competition with private practitioners will be stopped, as being contrary to the recommendations of the Treasury Committee in 1898 and to the declared objects of the laboratory.
(Answered by Mr. McKenna.) Except for Government work and for some few special cases which come individually before the Committee, chemical analyses are only undertaken by the National Physical Laboratory when required to elucidate some physical or mechanical question under investigation. The average number of chemical tests of all kinds during the past three years has been thirty-nine. The number of physical tests made and of instruments tested has averaged nearly 30,000. Physical tests, including tests on instruments, are 1149 undertaken in accordance with the recommendation of the Treasury Committee of 1898 establishing the laboratory as a public institution "for standardising and verifying instruments, for testing materials, and for the determination of physical constants." The members of the Treasury Committee with one exception became original members of the Executive Committee, and they have been careful to keep their work within the terms of the Report. The Committee are fully prepared to consider any complaints which may be made as to the nature of the testing work done and their rates of charges.