§ Sir W. de FRECEasked the Minister of Health the average daily number of inmates in general Poor Law institutions in England and Wales, the average weekly cost per inmate, and the total expenditure in connection with those institutions for 1914 and each of the last 10 years?
Mr. CHAMBERLAINI can best answer my hon. Friend's question by saying that in endeavouring to ascertain how far the recent abnormal increase in expenditure on sickness and disablement benefits is attributable to causes which can and should be removed, I am receiving the full co-operation of approved societies of all types in inquiries for the purpose of securing that their adminis- 225W trative methods shall be fully efficient; and of the Insurance Acts Committee of the British Medical Association, who recently submitted to a conference- of local medical and panel committees a number of detailed proposals, to which the conference agreed with certain amendments, for improving the procedure under which insurance practitioners at present carry out their duties with respect to medical certification.