§ 16. Mr. H. WILLIAMSasked the Minister of Health the number of employed persons in this country who are not insured under the National Health Insurance Acts?
§ The MINISTER of HEALTH (Mr. Neville Chamberlain)As the answer is necessarily long and contains a number of figures I will, with the hon. Member's permission, circulate it in the OFFICIAL REPORT.
§ Following is the reply:
§ No precise information of the kind desired by my hon. Friend is available. 1518 The number of employed persons aged 12 or over in Great Britain in 1921, according to the Census of that year, was 17,403,053, of whom it is estimated that 16,432,000 were over 16, and the estimated number of persons entitled to benefits under the National Health Insurance Acts in the same year was 15,134,000. The latter figure, however, includes some persons who had ceased to be employed, and for this and other reasons it is not directly comparable with the Census figure. The balance of 1,208,000, therefore, is only a rough approximation to the number of uninsured employed persons, of whom the principal groups are non-manual workers earning more than £250 a year and persons engaged in excepted employment under the Crown and local authorities and certain statutory companies.