§ SIR WALTER FOSTER (Derbyshire, Ilkeston)To ask the President of the Local Government Board whether his attention has been drawn to statements made by Local Government Board medical inspectors in Reports by them, quoted in the Report from the Select Committee on the Housing of the Working Classes Acts Amendment Bill, to the effect that certain medical officers of health and inspectors of nuisances in rural districts were, in fact, receiving inadequate salaries; whether the Local Government Board have recommended the repayment of a moiety of the salaries by the county councils in these cases; and, if so, whether it has received the consideration of the Board that they are thereby placed in the position of giving their approval to salaries which have been stated by their inspectors to be inadequate for a proper discharge of the duties required of such officers.
§ (Answered by Mr. John Burns.) It is only as regards some of the districts in question that the inspectors have in their Report directly referred to the salaries of the sanitary officers as inadequate. In most of these cases the Local Government Board had, prior to the inspector's visit, refused or threatened to refuse to sanction the appointment of all or some of the officers concerned. The visit of the inspector has usually led to a more satisfactory arrangement being made than that which previously existed, so that the Board have been able to sanction the appointments with a view to repayment of half the salaries by the county council.