§ MR. BARNES (Glasgow, Blackfriars)I beg to ask the Secretary for Scotland if any instructions have been issued by the Local Government Board to parish councils in Scotland forbidding the payment of outdoor relief up to 5s. per week.
§ THE SECRETARY FOR SCOTLAND (Mr. SINCLAIR,) ForfarshireThe Board have issued no such instructions. The facts are these. The Board have been asked by several parish councils whether, in view of the Old-Age Pensions Act, they Would be justified in increasing the aliment of all poor persons above seventy years of age to 5s. per week; and they have answered that parish councils would not be warranted in so raising the allowance, but must be guided solely by the needs of the paupers without reference to the Old-Age Pensions Act.