HC Deb 02 July 1936 vol 314 cc581-2
1. Mr. T. JOHNSTON

asked the Minister of Labour whether, in view of the information supplied by the Ministry of Health in Costing Returns, Part III, that the cost of provisions alone for the inmates of Poor Law children's homes, where bulk purchase can operate, varies from 3.04s. to 10.8s. per head per week, he will take steps to raise children's allowances under the Unemployment Insurance or Unemployment Assistance Regulations to meet the cost of an adequate diet?

The MINISTER of LABOUR (Mr. Ernest Brown)

I would refer the hon. Member to the reply by my right hon. Friend the Minister of Health to a question by the hon. Member for East Ham, South (Mr. Barnes) on Thursday last as to the cost of feeding in children's homes. The figures quoted by the hon. Member are obtained by dividing the cost of the provisions for the staff and for the children concerned by the number of the children. For this and other reasons, including those mentioned in the reply to which I have referred, the figures are not comparable with the children's rates under unemployment insurance and unemployment assistance.

Mr. JOHNSTON

In view of that statement, will the right hon. Gentleman undertake in future that these figures will be given with some explanation which will at any rate give them a meaning?

Mr. BROWN

That is a matter for the authorities themselves. As the hon. Gentleman knows, there are vast differences. Indeed, there is one case in which there is as much as 21s.

Mr. JOHNSTON

Is it not the case that the right hon. Gentleman is issuing figures which clearly and specifically state that the cost of food purchased wholesale per individual is as high as 10s. per week?

Mr. BROWN

The House knows that that depends on the size of the home, the kind of food, and the way the home is run.

Mr. PALING

Is the right hon. Gentleman aware that the Government set up a committee which went into this question, and in the homes of 200 children it was found that where they bought wholesale it cost about 4s. a week to feed each child under 15 years of age?