82. Lieut.-Colonel WATTS-MORGANasked the Chancellor of the Exchequer which Government Departments are wholly or partly employed in the assessment or issue of pensions, grants, or allowances or other awards from statutory or non-statutory funds in respect of services to the-State or in consequence of disabilities arising during these services or in pursuance of provisions relating to old age; what was the average number of staff employed in each Department during the financial year 1924-25, and the cost of salaries and administrative charges for the same period, including the expenses of local inquiry officers, committees, &c.; and whether he will consider the possibility of concentrating in one Department all the executive work connected with these activities, with a vie,.v to economy in cost and simplification of machinery?
§ Mr. CHURCHILLThe Departments mainly concerned are the Treasury, the Paymaster-General's Office, the Home Office, the Scottish Office, the Service Departments, the Ministry of Pensions, the Revenue Departments, the Board of Education, the Scottish Education Department, the Ministry of Health and the Scottish Board of Health. Detailed particulars distinguishing the number and cost of the staff employed in each Department on the multifarious services mentioned is not available, and I do not think that the cost of its preparation would be justified.