§ Mr. CHARLETONasked the Financial Secretary to the Treasury whether he can give approximate figures illustrating the increase in business and correspondence dealt with last year as compared with 1909 or any other convenient pre-War year in the following Departments: Treasury, Home Office, Foreign 815W Office, Dominions and Colonial Office, Ministry of Health, Ministry of Labour, Post Office, and Board of Trade (now comprising the Mines Department and Ministry of Transport), and comparative figures showing the increase of staff in these Departments over the same period?
§ Mr. PETHICK-LAWRENCEMy hon. Friend's inquiry would, I think, be more appropriately addressed to the responsible Ministers, though even so I doubt whether, within the normal limits of an answer to a Parliamentary question, it would be possible to present an adequate account of the many important changes which have taken place in the functions and scope of business of the Departments referred to.