§ MR. CHARLES ROBERTSTo ask the President of the Local Government Board if he will state the total annual cost of poor relief, and all purposes wholly connected therewith, in England and Wales for the last year for which Returns are available, and what proportion is borne by local and national taxation.
(Answered by Mr. John Burns.) The total expenditure on these purposes in England and Wales during the year ended at Lady-Day, 1907, was £13,957,000. It is estimated that of this sum £790,500, or 5.6 per cent., was met by means of repayments by relatives and other receipts not derived from taxation, and that of the remainder £2,591,000, or 18.6 per cent, of the whole, was borne by national taxation, and £10,575,500, or 75.8 per cent., by local rates.