§ Mr. H. WILLIAMS (on 24th March, 1927)asked the Financial Secretary to the Treasury how much has been provided, in the Estimates for 1927–28, to meet the cost of government so far as salaries are concerned, that is to say, the total proposed to be paid by way of salaries, wages, and allowances to all employés of the State, other than the manipulative staff in the Post Office, manual workers in dockyards, arsenals, and the Office of Works, serving soldiers, sailors, and airmen, but including all such soldiers, sailors, and airmen engaged on administrative duties at the War Office, Admiralty, and Air Ministry; and will he, for comparison, add the corresponding totals for 1926–27 and 1914–15?
§ Mr. McNEILLThe following statement is now supplied:
The total gross provision in the 1927–28 Estimates (including expenditure recovered in whole or in part from fees or other sources, and appropriated in aid of Votes) for salaries and wages of civilian staffs employed in the Civil and Revenue Departments, including the Diplomatic Consular and other Imperial Services abroad, is, approximately, £33,025,000. In accordance with the basis indicated in the question, the salaries and wages of manipulative and Indus- 1399W trial staffs in the Post Office and Office of Works have been excluded from this calculation. The total gross provision for civilian staffs in the Defence Departments (excluding industrial staffs in dockyards, Air Ministry establishments, and ordnance factories, but including industrial staffs in other War Office outstations), and for soldiers, sailors and airmen engaged on administrative duties at the War Office, Admiralty and Air Ministry is, approximately, £9,000,000.
The corresponding figures for 1926–27 are as follow:
£ Civil and Revenue Departments 32,500,000 Defence Departments 9,175,000 I regret that at this date it has proved impossible to obtain comparable figures on the above basis as regards 1914–15, but
— 1920. 1921. 1922. 1923. 1924. 1925. 1926. 1927. Temporary clerical staff … 5,326 6,407 6,392 6,100 4,621 4,166 4,573 3,457* Total clerical staff … 7,768 9,211 9,855 10,183 9,628 9,257 9,679 9,669 * Includes 1,023 permanent non-pensionable clerks.