§ MR. O'GRADY (Leeds, E.)I beg to ask the President of the Local Government Board if he will state how many applications for sanction of loans are now under the consideration of his Board, and what is the amount involved; and whether he can say approximately what time will elapse before his Board will have come to a decision respecting the applications.
§ MR. JOHN BURNSThe information asked for in the first part of the Question is not readily available, and could only be obtained after an examination of several hundred files of papers, which would involve much time and labour. Nor is it possible to give a definite reply to the latter part of the Question; the time which must necessarily elapse before a decision can be arrived at with respect to a particular application depends largely on the complexity of the matters to which it relates and the sufficiency of the information supplied in connection with it.