§ Captain W. BENNasked the Chancellor of the Exchequer the reasons for the large increase in the amounts shown under the head of salaries as between the. Civil Service and Revenue Departments Appropriation Accounts for 1913-14, and the Estimates for the current year, for the following Votes: Class II, Vote 3, Treasury, from £92,345 to £320,206; Class II, Vote 5, Foreign Office, from £61,177 to £260,628; Class II, Vote 11, Ministry of Agriculture, from £125,839 to £493,481; Class V, Vote 1, Diplomatic Service, from £455,121 to £1,009,265; Customs and Excise, Head Office, from £128,150 to £369,000; Collections, from .£1,704,930 to £3,575,000; Inland Revenue, from £747,999 to £4,377,157; Post Office, General, from £14,785,434 to £30,676,065: Engineering Establishment, from £1,583,083 to £4,044,000; and if he will state the number of the staffs employed in the Departments mentioned for the years given?
Mr. GUINNESSApart from the general effect on expenditure of the grant of a, cost-of-living bonus following on the depreciation in the purchasing value of money and of the corresponding steps taken in the Diplomatic and Consular Services abroad, the answer is as follows:
Class IT, Vote 3, Treasury and Subordinate Departments.
The numbers of staff employed on 1st August, 1914, and on 1st April, 1925, are, respectively, 270 and 805. The reasons for the increased expenditure, as compared with the period immediately prior to the War, are dealt with in Part XI, Chapter IV, of the Third Report of the Committee on National Expenditure (Command Paper 1589), to which the attention of the hon. and gallant Member is invited.
Class II, Vote 5, Foreign Office.
The numbers of staff employed on 1st August, 1914, and 1st April, 1925, are 188 and 780. The increase is due, in the main, to the additional work thrown upon the Department by the numerous problems arising out of the resettlement of Europe and to other increased duties-for example, in connection with passports the creation of a separate office has been necessary.
1306WClass II, Vote 11, Ministry of Agriculture,
The numbers of staff employed on 1st August, 1914, and 1st April, 1925, are 659 and 1,498, respectively. The increase is due to new duties imposed on the Ministry by Parliament and to the expansion and development of duties. existing in 1914 consequent upon post-War legislation. Examples of the former are the Agricultural Wages (Regulation) Act, 1924, and the settlement of ex-service men on the land, and, of the latter, the great expansion of educational and research work following the Corn (Production (Repeal) Act, 1921.
Class V, Vote 1, Diplomatic Service.
The numbers of staff employed on 1st August, 1914, and 1st April, 1925, are, respectively, Diplomatic Service, 158 and 271; Consular Service, 388 and 408.
The total of the salary subheads in the Appropriation Account for 1913–14 was £484,121.
The increased expenditure is due in part to the increased remuneration and improvement in conditions granted in pursuance of the recommendations of the Royal Commission on the Civil Service, including, in the case of the Diplomatic Service, the abolition of the means qualification, and in part to the heavy increase in the volume of work falling on missions abroad and to the expansion of Consular Service to provide more fully for British interests abroad, particularly in commercial matters.
Customs and Excise:
The numbers of staff employed on 1st August, 1914, and 1st April, 1925, are, respectively, Head Office, 752 and 1,288; Collections, 9,225 and 9,663.
The increase is due to the growth in the functions of the Department, both on the Revenue and non-Revenue sides. Extra work has been caused by the modification and addition of duties (and drawbacks) under the various Finance Acts, 1915 to 1925—in particular the McKenna Import Duties (and drawbacks)—and additional non-Revenue duties have been imposed under various Acts in the same period. Further, the Department have taken over from the Admiralty responsibility for the Revenue protection of the coast line.
1307WInland Revenue.
The numbers of staff employed on 1st August, 1914, and 1st April, 1925, are respectively 4,273 and 10,951.
The additional expenditure is due partly to the growth in complexity and elaboration of the Income Tax law, partly to the rise in the number of cases dealt with annually and partly to the increase in the rates of duty.
Post Office.
The total number of staff of all grades employed on 1st August, 1914, and on 1st April, 1925, was approximately 233,900 and 220,066, respectively, of which approximately 25,000 and 32,314 were employed in the Engineering Department. The proportion of officers employed full time to those employed part-time is however much larger in 1925 than it was in 1914.
he increase in expenditure is due to increased duties owing to very large telephone expansion, which is continuing and for which a provision of nearly three-quarters of a million is included in the estimate for 1925–26 over and above current expenditure, to new duties such as payment of Army, Navy and Air Force allowances, National Savings Certificates' work, to revisions of pay and conditions of service, including those involved by the recommendations of the Select Committee of 1913.