§ MR. SUMMERBELL (Sunderland)To ask the President of the Local Government Board how many, and what, authorities asked to be allowed to create distress committees; and how many such applications were granted by his Board.
(Answered by Mr. John Burns.) Under the Unemployed Workmen Act, 1905, distress committees were to be set up, outside London, in boroughs and urban districts, with populations exceeding 50,000. In boroughs and urban districts containing smaller populations distress committees could only be set -up on the application of the council, with the consent of the Local Government Board. Since the Act passed applications have been received from fifty-eight localities (thirty-two boroughs and twenty-six urban districts) for the establishment of distress committees. Orders setting up these committees have been issued in fourteen cases, in thirty-three cases they have been refused, and in the remaining eleven cases the application has been dropped or withdrawn by the local authority.