§ Mr. DAYasked the Secretary of State for Scotland whether he has any statistics that. will show the greatest number of persons in Scotland w ho are in receipt of relief, excluding casuals, on any one day during the winter months of 1927 or 1928 or at the last convenient winter date?
§ Sir J. GILMOURNo weekly returns of the numbers of poor in Scotland are submitted to the Scottish Board of Health. The latest winter figures available are those at 15th January, 1928. At that date there were (exclusive of casuals) 240,392 persons in receipt of relief in. Scotland. This figure includes all classes of poor, 105,290 being destitute able-bodied unemployed. The number of lunatic poor at 15th January, 1928, cannot be stated separately, but the number of this class at 15th May, 1927, was 18,322 and the figure does not vary to any appreciable degree from year to year.