§ 23. Lord ROBERT CECILasked the Chancellor of the Exchequer what was the number of members of friendly societies and trade unions giving sick benefit before the introduction of the National Insurance Bill; what is the number of members now of those societies and unions, or sections thereof, which have been approved, separating in each case the societies from the unions; and what is the number of members of the approved sections formed by industrial insurance companies?
§ Mr. MASTERMANI am obtaining further returns from approved societies and their branches and approved sections as to the number of their members. It is necessary, however, to circularise about 20,000 societies and branches for this purpose, and as a consequence of pressure in their offices, they have in many cases found it impracticable at present to render complete returns.