§ Lord STRACHIEMy Lords, I desire to ask His Majesty's Government what is the total sum paid into the Welfare Fund by Somerset district up to date and how much of that sum has been spent and how much allotted and for what purposes spent or allotted in each case.
§ LORD HYLTONThe following is the information asked for in the noble Lord's Question. The total sum paid into the Welfare Fund by the Somerset district is £5,206 18s. 8d. In accordance with the provisions of the Act, four-fifths of this total must be allocated for local purposes in the district. Including a small share of interest received from the investments of the fund, the total amount available for local purposes in the Somerset district is therefore at this moment £4.211 7s. 9d. The whole of the last-mentioned amount has been allocated by the Miners' Welfare Committee to local schemes in the district. In addition, a sum of £64 has been earmarked out of future contributions for schemes already in progress. The total amount hitherto paid out on account of the allocations mentioned is £1,477.
Payments out are normally made by instalments as each scheme progresses, and evidence is required as to the expenditure which is incurred. Six schemes in all have so far been sanctioned in the Somerset district; of these five are schemes involving the purchase and laying out of fields for recreational purposes, and one is a scheme for the building of a village hall and reading room for the workmen. All these schemes have been put forward by the joint district welfare committee of coalowners and miners, which was set up on the invitation of the Secretary for Mines to assist the Miners' Welfare Committee in allocating the fund for local purposes in the district. I have a copy of the memorandum issued by the Miners' Welfare Committee on this subject, which I shall be happy to hand to my noble friend if he cares to see it, also a statement giving the details of these schemes.