§ 3. Sir Annesley Somervilleasked the Minister of Labour the approximate number of persons registered as unemployed by his Department in May, 1938, and May, 1939, although they were retired persons not seeking employment?
§ Mr. Lennox-BoydNo person is registered as unemployed unless he has made a personal application for assistance in finding suitable employment. I would refer my hon. Friend to the reply given on 11th May to a question by my hon. Friend the Member for Lincoln (Mr. Liddall).
§ The following question stood upon the Order Paper in the name of Sir JOSEPH LEECH:
§ 23. To ask the Minister of Labour whether, in view of the fact that unemployment totals include 500,000 persons whose wages and normal conditions of 567 employment provide for short temporary periods of unemployment, 100,000 retired persons not seeking employment, 250,000 persons unemployable for physical or other reasons, and 100,000 who refuse training and/or transfer into employments awaiting them with satisfactory conditions and wages, he will in future show that the total for whom there is no employment is 1,000,000 less than the published total?
§ Mr. LeachI beg to call your attention, Mr. Deputy-Speaker, to this question, which is based on an ingenious tissue of falsehoods, and to ask you whether it ought not to be struck out of the Order Paper.
Mr. Deputy-SpeakerThat is not a matter that I can go into at the moment. The question has not been reached, and the hon. Member who put it down is responsible in the usual way for what it contains.