§ MR. SUMMERBELL (Sunderland)To ask the President of the Local 1486 Government Board, whether he is aware of the charges now being made, amounting in many cases to the sum of 3s. 7d., for the supply of birth certificates and search for same to applicants for old age pensions; and whether he is prepared to take steps to have such charges reduced, considering the means of the applicants.
(Answered by Mr. John Burns.) I have no power to reduce the statutory fees for supplying birth certificates, but I may say that arrangements were some time since made under which any claimant for an old age pension whose birth was registered in England or Wales since 1st July 1837, and who can give the place and date of birth, need not go to the expense of purchasing a birth certificate, and the pension officer can verify the particulars without expense to the claimant.