HC Deb 25 February 1907 vol 169 cc1250-1
MR. BOWLES (Lambeth, Norwood)

I beg to ask the President of the Board of Trade whether his attention has been called to the fact that the Returns of unemployment issued by the Board of Trade are compiled upon information representing not only real and enforced unemployment, but also every temporary and voluntary displacement of labour due to local strikes, lock-outs, seasonal unemployment, changes of employer, sickness, and similar causes; whether the method of compilation or accuracy of this information is in any way checked by the Board of Trade; and whether, in view of the fact that the figures in these Returns are sometimes quoted as representing enforced and involuntary unemployment alone, he will cause them, in future, to be accompanied by a note explaining their true character.

MR. LLOYD-GEORGE

As already explained in a reply given to the hon. Member for the Bury division of Lancashire,†the percentage of unemployed members of trade unions published in the Board of Trade Labour Gazette does not include persons on strike or locked out, sick or superannuated. The Returns, however, include quite properly persons who are out of work as a consequence of others being on strike or locked out, or owing to unfavourable weather or change of employment. The main basis of the Returns is the trade union record of the members receiving unemployed benefit, and their accuracy is readily checked by the financial statements of the trade unions as to the amount of benefit so paid. I shall be glad to consider the question of giving an explanatory note as to the figures in the Board of Trade Labour Gazette.

MR. THORNE (West Ham, S.)

Would it be possible to get the number of unemployed who do not belong to any union by a census such as they have in the United States?

MR. LLOYD-GEORGE

That is the only way that suggests itself to my mind at the moment.

MR. CHIOZZA MONEY

Will the right hon. Gentleman consider the advisability of having a special column in the next census paper as is done in the United States?

MR. LLOYD-GEORGE

That is a matter for the President of the Local Government Board. †See Col. 1236.