§ 20. Mr. POTTSasked the Minister of Labour whether he is aware that men and women entitled to receive benefits from the Unemployment Insurance Fund on pay days and signing-on days have little shelter provided for them at the Barnsley Employment Exchange, and stand in queues for lengthy periods exposed to inclement weather; what action will he take to secure reasonable shelter for them; and is he further aware that the exchange frontage is so constructed that this could be done at a small cost?
§ Lieut.-Colonel MUIRHEADExcept in the case of sudden additions to the register of which the exchange has no warning, applicants are allotted times of attendance, and if they attend at those times there is no need for them to wait in the open. My right hon. Friend is in touch with the First Commissioner with a view to experimenting with some kind of shelter in a few selected cases, but I am not sure that this would be possible at the Barnsley premises.
§ Mr. POTTSIs the Minister aware that when this exchange was built considerably more than £1,000 went back into the accounts, and in view of that economy will he not reconsider this request? It would not cost very much to cover the place. The points which have been put in his reply have been considered time after time, and it is no good putting them to us again.
§ Lieut.-Colonel MUIRHEADI took the trouble to have a telephone inquiry as to the situation made to-day and I find that the system is working as I have stated in my answer. If people turn up at the proper time, the time allotted to them, there is no necessity for them to stand in the open.