§ Mr. RENDALLasked the Chancellor of the Exchequer (1) whether he is aware that in the Kingswood (Bristol) district some eighty manufacturers employ some 4,000 to 5,000 outworkers who work in their homes at making boots from material supplied by the manufacturers; that such materials are obtained at the beginning of the week from two, three, or more separate manufacturers; that it is impossible to know for which of such employers the outworkers work first for in any week; and whether he will explain the position of the manufacturers and outworkers under the Bill as it now stands; and (2) whether he is aware that the Kingswood and District (Bristol) Boot Manufacturers' Association employ between 4,000 and 5,000 outworkers; that they consider that Clauses 1 and 5, on page 115 of the National Insurance Bill, do not adequately deal with the position of such outworkers; and whether he will propose such Amendments as will satisfactorily meet their difficulty?
Mr. KINGasked (1) how it will be possible to decide under the National Insurance 1216 Bill which employer is liable to pay the employer's contribution in the case of an outworker who, at the beginning of the week, fetches to his home work from two or more employers; and (2) whether the right hon. Gentleman's attention has been called to the position of outworkers in the boot trade of the Bristol district under the National Insurance Bill; and whether the Insurance Commissioners will have power to make regulations that will meet the peculiar difficulties arising in their case?
Mr. McKINNON WOODIt was precisely on account of the difficulty of laying down a hard and fast rule in the varied cases of outworkers that a very wide power was left to the Insurance Commissioners to make regulations.