§ 45. Mr. SMEDLEY CROOKEasked the Prime Minister if he will consider the advisability of setting up a Ministry of Insurance to take over the whole of the financial administration of pensions, unemployment benefit, health insurance, and public assistance expenditure in order both to save administration expenses and provide a nucleus for a comprehensive system of contributory all-in insurance?
§ The PRIME MINISTER (Mr. Ramsay MacDonald)Consideration has been given from time to time to proposals on the lines of that of the hon. Member, but the conclusion has been that the financial and practical difficulties in concentrating the existing schemes in one administration and replacing them ultimately by such a scheme as the hon. Member has in mind are so serious as to outweigh any possible 1106 advantages. I do not think that a further review would be likely to lead to any different conclusion.
§ Sir F. FREMANTLEIs it not the fact that the insurance scheme originated in a single Measure in 1911, and that experience showed that the different branches had to be separated after a time, in administration?
§ The PRIME MINISTERThat is so.