§ 14. Mr. Magnayasked the Minister of Labour whether his recent inquiry into the 552 expenditure of working-class households during the week ended 23rd October has been successful in obtaining the number of budgets required?
§ Mr. E. BrownYes, Sir; I am glad to say that the response to this inquiry has been highly satisfactory. The committee which advised as to the methods to be adopted in the conduct of the inquiry recommended that the Department should endeavour to obtain 10,000 budgets from households of industrial workers, and 1,250 budgets from households of agricultural workers. Over 10,000 budgets have already been obtained from industrial workers, and over 2,400 from agricultural workers, and further budgets are still being received. I take this opportunity of expressing my appreciation of the very valuable assistance which has been rendered in this matter by the many thousands of households who have supplied information; by large numbers of voluntary helpers who have undertaken the work of visiting the households, distributing the forms and collecting the budgets; by the officers of the Employment Exchange service who have been responsible for organising the inquiries within their districts; and by members of the local committees who have co-operated with those officers in this work. My cordial thanks are also due to the members of the committee which advised and assisted the Department in the preparation of the general plans for the inquiry. As the House knows, budgets are to be collected for three other dates next year, and I feel sure that I shall have equally effective co-operation from all concerned in obtaining these also.
§ Mr. ThorneNow that the Minister has the information with regard to people who are employed, will he be good enough to get the information from the families of unemployed people?
§ Mr. BrownI have answered questions several times on that point. We are acting on the advice of the advisory committee.