§ 71. Mr. Turtonasked the Financial Secretary to the Treasury whether he can give the figures of expenditure on public social services in 1941 and 1942?
§ Mr. AsshetonYes, Sir. I am circulating in the OFFICIAL REPORT a statement giving the figures for 1941 (or latest available year) and 1942. These should be compared with those published in the OFFICIAL REPORT for 26th January, 1943, in respect of 1940 and 1941.
§ Following is the statement: 1691
| PUBLIC SOCIAL SERVICES. | |||||||
| Total Expenditure under Certain Acts of Parliament. | |||||||
| Other than expenditure out of loans for capital purposes or out of capital receipts. | |||||||
| NOTE.—This statement gives the expenditure on Public Social Services in 1941 and 1942, the latest years for which details are available, which would have been included in Part I of the return to be published in continuation of Command 5906 of November, 1938. Reference should be made to Command 5906 for comparable expenditure in earlier years and for information as to the basis on which the return is compiled, but it should be observed that the explanatory notes given in that return are not now accurate in all respects. | |||||||
| Service. | England & Wales. | Scotland. | 1941 (or latest available year) Great Britain. | Total number of persons directly benefiting from the expenditure included in Column 5. | |||
| Financial Year commencing 1st April. | Financial Year commencing 1st April. | ||||||
| 1941 (or latest available year). | 1942 (estimated). | 1941 (or latest available year). | 1942 (estimated). | ||||
| (1) | (2) | (3) | (4) | (5) | (6) | ||
| £000 | £000 | £000 | £000 | £000 | England and Wales. | Scotland. | |
| (a) Unemployment Insurance & Unemployment Assistance Acts— | |||||||
| (i) Unemployment Benefit, etc., General Scheme | 7,270 | 4,803 | 1,425 | 1,213 | 8,695 | Not available | Not available |
| (ii) Unemployment Benefit, etc., Agricultural Scheme | 327 | 246 | 42 | 34 | 369 | Not available | Not available |
| (iii) Unemployment Allowances | 3,207 | 1,521 | 904 | 455 | 4,111 | Not available | Not available |
| (iv) Prevention & Relief of Distress | 1,453 | 694 | 93 | 44 | 1,546 | Not available | Not available |
| (b) National Health Insurance Acts | 41,316† | 44,750† | 4,816† | 5,308† | 46,132 | 20,655,000* | 2,362,000* |
| (c) Widows, Orphans & Old Age Contributory Pensions Acts | 53,594‡ | 54,136‡ | 6,231‡ | 6,309‡ | 59,825 | 2,417,000 | 290,000 |
| (d) Old Age Pensions Acts | 45,604 | 47,260 | 5,236 | 5,371 | 50,840 | 1,951,000 | 224,000 |
| (e) Old Age & Widows' Pensions Act, 1940 (Supplementary Pensions). | 26,702 | 36,129 | 2,823 | 3,665 | 29,525 | Not available | Not available |
| (f) War Pensions Acts and the Ministry of Pensions Act (i.e. War of 1914–18). | 30,935 | 30,269 | 3,411 | 3,342 | 34,346 | 673,350 | 74,200 |
| (g) Pensions (Navy, Army, Air Force & Mercantile Marine) Act, 1939; Personal Injuries (Emergency Provisions) Act, 1939; Military Training Act, 1939; Reserve & Auxiliary Forces Act, 1939 | 13,224 | 23,136 | 1,471 | 2,762 | 14,695 | 481,480 | 55,300 |
| (h) Education Acts | 113,000 | 119,242 | 16,267 | 17,072 | 129,267 | Not available | 898,803 |
| (i) Physical Training & Recreation Act | 41 | 9 | 6 | 4 | 47 | Not available | Not available |
| (j) Acts relating to Approved Schools | 1,173 | 1,339 | 201 | 234 | 1,374 | 9,478 | 2,769 |
| Service. | England & Wales. | Scotland. | 1941 (or latest available year) Great Britain. | Total number of persons directly benefiting from the expenditure included in Column 5. | |||||
| Financial Year commencing 1st April. | Financial Year commencing 1st April. | ||||||||
| 1941 (or latest available year). | 1942 (estimated). | 1941 (or latest available year). | 1942 (estimated). | ||||||
| (1) | (2) | (3) | (4) | (5) | (6) | ||||
| £000 | £000 | £000 | £000 | £000 | England and Wales | Scotland. | |||
| (k) Public Health Acts so far as they relate to:— | |||||||||
| (i) Hospital & Treatment of Disease | … | … | 18,771 | Not available | 2,144 | Not available | 20,915 | Not available | Not available |
| (ii) Maternity & Child Welfare Work | … | … | 4,328 | 717 | 6,706 | Not available | Not available | ||
| (l) Midwives Acts | … | … | 1,661 | Not available | Not available | ||||
| (m) Housing Acts | … | … | 45,600 | 8,961 | 54,561 | — | — | ||
| (n) Acts relating to the Relief of the Poor | … | … | 43,691 | 5,054 | 48,745 | 1,157,262 | 106,000 | ||
| (o) Lunacy & Mental Deficiency Treatment Acts | … | … | 3,166 | 1,919 | 9,160 | 132,963 | 21,600 | ||
| (p) Mental Deficiency Acts | … | … | 4,075 | Not available | |||||
| TOTALS | … | 459,138 | 61,721 | 520,859 | |||||
| NOTES. | |||||||||
| * Numbers given are those of insured persons at 31st December, 1941. See paragraph 6 on page 5 of Command 5906. | |||||||||
| † The figures given in columns 1 and 3 and cloumns 2 and 4 relate to the calendar years 1942 and 1943 respectively. | |||||||||
| ‡ These figures refer to expenditure from the Pensions Account, the Special Pensions Account, the Pensions (Scotland) Account and the Special Pensions (Scotland) Account. Surpluses and deficits in these Accounts are dealt with by transfers to and from the Treasury Pensions Account and the Treasury Special Pensions Account which cover both England and Wales and Scotland and into which annual contributions are to be paid by the Exchequer. For the financial year 1941 the amount of the Exchequer contribution was £21,525,000. |