§ 1. Sir ARTHUR FELLasked the President of the Board of Trade if he is aware that under the Coal Rationing Order many persons and institutions have been given the right to a supply of coal for this year exceeding the amount which they have consumed in any of the past two or three years, whilst others have not more than a third or half of what they consumed previously; and if he proposes to issue an Order that in no case is more coal to be allowed this year than was used in previous years by the same household?
§ The PARLIAMENTARY SECRETARY to the BOARD of TRADE (Mr. Wardle)Every scheme of allowance which adopts a fixed scale must produce some anomalies. No scale can take account of all exceptional circumstances. The scale of fuel allowances under Clause 6 of the Household Fuel and Lighting Order, 1918, is a scale of maximum allowances, subject to certain exceptions, and less may be allowed when the facts are ascertained, and it is hoped the public will respond by exercising every economy even where under the Order they could claim a larger supply.