§ MR. LANE-FOX (Yorkshire, W.R., Barkston Ash)To ask the President of the Board of Education what was the total number of male and female teachers respectively paying into the Teachers' Superannuation Fund on 31st March. 1907; what was the total amount paid by the teachers in the year ending 31st March, 1907, and the total amount for the seven years ending 31st March, 1907; what was the total sum paid to the teachers in the year ending 31st March, 1907, and when the promised revision of the scale of such payments will be made known to teachers; and whether he can yet state what alterations will be made in the amount of superannuation payments to be paid in future to the teachers.
(Answered by Mr. McKenna.) I have no figures giving the number of teachers contributing to the Deferred Annuity Fund on a given date. The number of certificated teachers in employment on the last day of the school year ending between 1st August, 1905, and 31st July, 1906, was 29,414 men and 54,860 women. To ascertain the number contributing to the fund it would be necessary to deduct those who did not accept The Elementary School Teachers (Superannuation) Act, 1898, and to add a number of teachers who were contributing in respect of an interval in their service under Rule 13 of the Elementary School Teachers' Superannuation Rules, 1899, and certain others who are serving in pupil-teacher centres and other institutions in which service may be recorded. The total amount received from the teachers in the year ending 31st March, 1907, was £199,966; the total amount for the seven years ending 31st March, 1907, was £1,105,500. The total amount paid to the teachers during that year was £988. I am not aware that any promise of a revised scale of payments either by or to the teachers has been made. The actuarial inquiry required by the Act has taken 611 place, and the Report has recently been laid before Parliament. Section 4 (2) of the Act provides that: "If it appears from any actuarial report under this Act that the assets and liabilities of either account of the fund are such as either to require a reduction or to justify an increase of the annuities, the Treasury may cause fresh tables to be constructed and those tables, when approved by the Treasury, shall come into force, and shall be laid before Parliament, and the former tables shall cease to be in force, and so on from time to time as occasion requires."