§ 18. Mr. CURRIEasked the Comptroller of the Household, as representing the National Health Insurance Commissioners, whether his attention has been drawn to the strictures contained in Clauses 11 and 12 of the first Report just issued by the Committee of Public Accounts upon the Grant of nearly £9,000,000 of public money for objects described by the Committee as outside the main framework of the Act of 1911, and for which, in the opinion of the Committee, no proper Parliamentary sanction had been obtained until after the money had been parted with; whether, in view of the Committee's opinion that, notwithstanding the subsequent regularisation of these payments, they regard such proceedings with anxiety, an assurance can be given to the House that they will not be repeated; whether the particular Grants of money objected to by the Committee represented an unauthorised increase of about 40 per cent. upon the expenditure properly authorised; and whether these payments were made without the knowledge of the Chancellor of the Exchequer for the time being?
Mr. ROBERTSI am aware of the-terms of the Report referred to, which states that the position as it existed before the Act of 1913 is now regularised; but I would remind the hon. Member that the Grants in question, both before and 329 after the passage of the Act of 1913, were duly voted after full discussion by this House, within whose authority the matter rests, and that any Grant included in future Estimates in virtue of Section 1 of the Act of 1913 will necessarily be subject to that authority.