INSURANCE FUND (COMMITTEE). (Hansard, 30 July 1930)

§ 50. Captain CROOKSHANK
asked the Prime Minister the names of the members of the All-party Committee set up to deal with unemployment insurance; and the terms of reference of the Committee?

§ The PRIME MINISTER
As part of the series of advisory consultations which are taking place on subjects of an economic character, the facts and the meaning of the expenditure on unemployment in its more recent features are being examined by a body, upon which members of all parties sit, working under the conditions which regulate committees of the Advisory Economic Council. I must make it clear once more that these discussions are not conducted by Government Committees whose work is to prepare Government policy, but are conducted so as to put the Government in possession of different points of view authoritatively stated.

§ Captain CROOKSHANK
Will not the Prime Minister tell us who the members of this Committee are?

§ Lieut.-Colonel HENEAGE
Will this Committee have power to investigate the conditions of employment in agricultural areas?

§ The PRIME MINISTER
As I have said, the inquiry that this Committee is going to undertake is with reference to the financial state of the Unemployment Insurance Fund at the present moment, in view of the recent claims upon it;

§ Captain CROOKSHANK
Can the Prime Minister say whether or not I am right in thinking that on this committee the Lord Privy Seal and the Minister of Labour represent the Government, the hon. Member for Rushcliffe (Sir H. Betterton) and the hon. and gallant Member for Kelvingrove (Major Elliot) the Conservative party, and the hon. Member for Leith (Mr. E. Brown) and the hon. Member for Bodmin (Mr. Foot) the Liberal party?

§ The PRIME MINISTER
I am very much obliged to the hon. and gallant Member for giving the information. In the case of these committees, it is only in the rarest circumstances that the names of those composing them are given.

§ Sir K. WOOD
Does not the Prime Minister know that, if he does not announce the names, the right hon. Gentleman the Member for Carnarvon Boroughs (Mr. Lloyd George) will do so?