§ Mr. C. Lloydasked the Minister of Fuel and Power whether the reduction in domestic consumption between 1940 and 1944 represented an economy greater or less than the reduction provided for in the draft rationing scheme elaborated by Sir William Beveridge.
Major Lloyd GeorgeBetween 1940 and 1944 domestic consumption of coal has fallen by 11,000,000tons. There has, however, been some increase in the same period in the domestic consumption of coke, gas and electricity, which, when put into terms of coal and deducted from this 11,000,000 tons, gives a net decrease of 8,500,000 tons. The scales in the rationing scheme published as an annex to Cmd. 6364, which covered all fuels in terms of coal, were estimated to save 10,000,000 tons of coal in a full year. Such an estimate must, of course, carry a fairly wide margin of uncertainty.