HC Deb 26 October 1943 vol 393 cc35-6W
Mr. Lindsay

asked the President of the Board of Education the amounts paid by his Department direct to the headquarters of national juvenile organisations for the last four years; the amounts paid to local units of each separate juvenile organisation by local youth committees and by the Board of Education; and the total increase in financial aid to juvenile organisations since 1939?

Mr. Butler

The grants made by the Board to the headquarters of national voluntary organisations under Article 1 (b) and (c) of the Social and Physical Training Grant Regulations during the last four years have been as follow:

  • 1939–40 (half-year—£32,858 (14 organisations).
  • 1940–41—£61,135 (19 organisations).
  • 1941–42—£75,556 (21 organisations).
  • 1942–43—£108,860 (21 organisations).

The direct grants made by the Board to local voluntary organisations under Article 1(a) of the Regulations since 1st April, 1940, when the present system of administering these grants started, has been as follow:

  • 1940–41—£18,087.
  • 1941–42—£49,000.
  • 1942–43—£89,103.
It would involve a disproportionate expenditure of time and labour to attempt to analyse the above totals so as to show the amount of grant made to units of individual organisations.

I regret that owing to the need for reducing to a minimum in war-time the collection and analysis of statistics, I am unable to give the information asked for as regards the financial assistance given by local education authorities to voluntary organisations. As regards the last part of the Question, figures are not available for a comparison with 1939. In 1942–43 the programmes and estimates submitted by 140 Higher Education Authorities provided for a total expenditure of £544,584 on the maintenance and development of the Youth Service, whilst the corresponding figure for 1943–44, based on returns so far received from 122 authorities, is £653,742. These figures cover the estimated expenditure of authorities on all aspects of the Youth Service, including aid to voluntary organisations.