§ 90. Mr. HANNONasked the hon. Member for the Pollok Division of Glasgow, as representing the First Commissioner of Works, whether the expenditure on the Office of Works and public buildings has increased from £143,000 in 1913–14 to £582,000 in the current financial year; and to what causes this increase is due?
§ Sir J. GILMOURWith the hon. Member's permission, I will have the reply, which is of considerable length, circulated in the OFFICIAL REPORT.
§ The following is the reply:
§ The actual expenditure in 1913–14 on the Office of Works and public buildings was £142,834, and the estimated net expenditure for the current financial year is £582,000. The increase is due in general to the necessity of making proper provision for the efficient performance of the very heavily augmented work of the Department. Any comparison with the pre-War provision must also take into account the bonus payable to all civil servants and the higher salaries it is now necessary to pay to officers employed on a temporary basis and inclusive terms. The chief items in the addi- 417 tional work now devolving upon the Department are:—
- (a) The provision of office accommodation for new Ministries (such as the Ministries of Pensions, Labour, Transport and Air) and for other Ministries with extended functions.
- (b) The equipment and maintenace of training institutions for disabled and other ex-service men for the Ministries of Labour and Pensions.
- (c) The provision of sanatoria for tuberculous ex-service men.
- (d) The management of housing estates with over 8,000 houses recently transferred from the Ministry of Munitions and of the Well Hall Estate, Woolwich, with 1,300 houses.