§ 34. Brigadier Medlicottasked the President of the Board of Trade how 604 many persons were adjudicated bankrupt during the years 1946, 1947, 1948, 1949 and 1950, respectively.
Mr. H. WilsonParticulars of the numbers of persons adjudicated bankrupt during each of the years 1946 to 1949 were contained in the answer given to the hon. and gallant Member on 5th December, 1950. The figure for the year 1950 is 1,853, making a total of 5,425 in the five years in question.
§ Brigadier MedlicottIs the right hon. Gentleman aware that the figure has shown a steady and startling increase over the whole of the last five years, and does he recall that in the early days of the last Parliament it was frequently claimed that Socialism would abolish bankruptcy? What has gone wrong?
Mr. WilsonWe have never made that assertion. We do not seek to protect the more inefficient fringe of private enterprise from the consequences of their actions, but I can certainly reassure the hon. and gallant Member by telling him that, despite the steady increase, the figure for the last five years is still only one-third of the post-war figure, and that if deeds of arrangement are taken into account it is only a quarter of the pre-war figure.
§ Mr. Percy WellsHow many of these people were farmers?
§ Captain CrookshankIs the Overseas Food Corporation included?
§ Mr. S. SilvermanHow do these figures for the five post-war years compare with the corresponding five years after the end of the First World War?
Mr. WilsonAgainst 5,425 in the last five years, the number in the first five years after the First World War was 15,563.