LIEUT.-Colonel SPENDER CLAYasked the Food Controller what are the net profits, if any, made by the Department of foodstuffs since the inception of control?
§ Mr. McCURDYThe certifided net profits of the Ministry of Food for the financial year ending 31st March, 1918, were £133,363 5s. 9d. Details were published in Command Paper 191. A provisional trading account for the financial year ending 31st March, 1919, was published in Command Paper 296, which shows an estimated net profit of £1,350,023. A further review of the position has been made recently for the information of the Select Committee on National Expenditure; and it is estimated that, so far as can be calculated at present, the aggregate results of the trading of the Ministry since the inception of control to 31st March, 1920, will 1645W result in a profit of approximately £1,100,000. In view of the fact that this margin amounts to about one-tenth of 1 per cent. on the total transactions of the Ministry over the period in question, it may fairly be claimed that the Department has succeeded in its object of being self-supporting without making a profit.