§ Mr. GILLasked the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he could state how many cases of injury were referred to the medical referees for examination and decision under the Workmen's Compensation Act in 1910; how many medical referees there are, and the total amount of fees paid to them in connection with their offices during the same period, in the United Kingdom; whether the whole of them are also engaged in private practice; whether any, and, if so, how many, also act for insurance companies; 584 and whether he could give the number of such referees in Lancashire, the number of cases referred to them, and the amount of fees paid to them during the same year?
§ The UNDER-SECRETARY of STATE for the HOME DEPARTMENT (Mr. Masterman)The number of cases in which referees were employed in 1910 was 1,667; the number of referees was 349; and the total amount of the fees paid to them was £4,177 1s. 6d. The corresponding figures for Lancashire were 319 cases, twenty-nine referees, and amount of fees £726 17s. None of the referees are whole-time officers. It is one of the conditions of appointment of a referee that he shall not hold any regular employment by or on behalf of an insurance company in connection with cases under the Act, and they are also instructed that, apart from quite exceptional circumstances, they should not act on behalf of the employer or insurance company or workman in any case in which weekly payments are being made to a workman under the Act.