§ 64. Sir W. DAVISONasked the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he will give the House the comparable figures between 1913 and the latest available date of the total expenditure and the total numbers employed in each of the various Government Departments?
§ Major ELLIOTThe expenditure of each Department is shown in the annual Appropriation Accounts. The figures for 1913–14 will be found in House of Commons Paper No. 98 of 1915. The latest figures available are those for the year 1930–31 recently published (House of Commons Paper No. 6 of 1932). As regards the number of staff employed in Government Departments, I would refer the hon. Member to the return given in Command Paper 3984 of 1931. Particulars of 1914 numbers will be found in pages 21 and 22 of the report of the Committee on Pay etc. of State Servants of 1923, of which I am sending him a copy. My hon. Friend will be able to make any desired comparison from these documents.
§ Sir W. DAVISONIn view of the great importance of the House having the figures asked for in this question, and in view of the expense to which hon. Members would be put by getting statistical secretaries to obtain the information for themselves, does not my right hon. and gallant Friend think he could ask a member of the Department to secure the information asked for in the question in a tabulated form?
§ Major ELLIOTI fully sympathise with the desire of hon. and right hon. Members of this House to have full information on these and other subjects, but we are constantly being pressed by hon. Members to reduce the numbers of civil servants who are carried on the various 1253 Votes, and, unless we are able to omit these detailed answers, it will be absolutely impossible for us to make these reductions in staff.
§ Sir W. DAVISONCan my right hon. and gallant Friend say that there has been a reduction in this Department and that therefore the question might be withdrawn?
§ Mr. CHARLES WILLIAMSWould it not be quite simple to give these figures for, say, half-a-dozen departments, so that the public might know whether there had been a real increase in the number employed or not; and is it not a fact that it would not cost very much and that it would show to the public clearly where they were?
§ Major ELLIOTI am afraid that it would not. The half-dozen departments would always be subject to the charge that we were selecting the most favourable departments for our own case, and in the case of many of these departments the comparison between 1913 and the present time would not hold, since in the case, say, of the Ministry of Health it did not exist as such in 1913.
§ Mr. T. WILLIAMSCan the right hon. and gallant Gentleman say how many extra officials have been added as a result of imposing the Customs duties which hon. Members opposite supported?