53. Sir J. WALTONasked the Chancellor of the Exchequer whether, and to what extent, provision to meet the estimated loss of £100,000,000 in the current year in connection with working our railways under Government control has been included in the Budget now under consideration?
Mr. CHAMBERLAINProvision is made in my Budget Estimate and in the Civil Service Estimates Vote 18 for £60,000,000. This represents the best estimate which the Board of Trade are able to form of the net charge to be borne on the Votes this financial year.
Sir J. WALTONAm I to understand that the estimate of £100,000,000 loss made by the Minister of Ways and Communications has therefore been found to be an over-estimate to the extent of £40,000,000?
Mr. CHAMBERLAINThere has been great difficulty in making an estimate of 1435 the probable loss this year, but the figure of £60,000,000 is, I am advised by the Board of Trade, the best figure which they can give me.
§ Sir E. CARSONIs it not true that the figure of £100,000,000 is a pure fiction, and that no facts or figures can be produced to sustain anything like it?
Mr. CHAMBERLAINIf my right hon. and learned Friend wants further information about the figure of £100,000,000, he will perhaps address a question to my right hon. Friend.
§ Sir E. CARSONI have done so, and could get no answer.
§ Mr. LAMBERTDoes the figure of £60,000,000 exclude the cost of carrying troops, Government transport, and merchantmen?
Sir D.MACLEANFor the convenience of the Transport Committee which is sitting to-day and every day, may I ask my right hon. Friend the Chancellor of the Exchequer whether he would amplify the answer he gave this afternoon with regard to the estimate of the loss to the railways? Will he say whether that estimate is arrived at after debiting the various Government Departments with the cost of carriage for those Departments, and will he say when that system of debit began? Was it three months ago, or within the last six weeks?
Mr. CHAMBERLAINThe answer I made was in answer to a supplementary question. It is very easy to put those questions, but it is often rash of Ministers to answer them. But, having further investigated the matter—my statement was challenged immediately after it was made, and I therefore sought to ascertain the facts to see whether I was correct or not—I am informed that the £60,000,000 is, as I said, the net deficit after debiting the Government with the charges for services rendered during the year. That arrangement came into operation, I think, on 1st April this year, and I believe, though I am not absolutely certain on this point, that the charges of each Department are met out of the Votes of the Department. At any rate, the £60,000,000 estimate—if 1436 the right hon. Gentleman and other hon. Members will refer to it they will see—is outside the payment for Government services.