§ Sir P. PILDITCHasked the Financial Secretary to the Treasury if he proposes to issue this year the 40W Memorandum on present and pre-War expenditure, with particulars of Government staffs at certain dates, which has been issued for several years and been of much value; and whether, for purposes of comparison, he will return it in the original form, putting it alternatively, if desired, on the lines of the tables relating to national expenditure in Cmd. 2613?
§ Mr. R. McNEILLThe analysis of public expenditure contained in the Tables relating to National Expenditure (Command Paper 2613) has now been 41W completed by the addition of figures for 1926 and re-issued in Table VIII of the Financial Statement (1926–27). This analysis covers for the years 1914, 1925, and 1926 practically the same ground as the Memorandum on Present and Pre-War Expenditure to which my hon. Friend refers, and is, I think, a great improvement. The Memorandum is, therefore, being revised on the new basis, and will be issued as soon as possible. As the figures will be given for 1914–15 and for the years 1921–22 onwards, continuity of the records will be satisfactorily secured. A separate return of the staffs of public Departments is now issued quarterly.