Mr. Jenkinsasked the Lord Privy Seal whether he can state the total expenditure sanctioned to the most recent date on air-raid precautions work, equipment and salaries, stated separately, in the administrative county of Monmouthshire, Glamorganshire, Newport, Cardiff and Swansea?
§ Sir J. AndersonThe expenditure of a local authority on air-raid precautions is732W not limited to expenditure sanctioned specifically for that authority. Considerable grant-earning expenditure may also be incurred without specific reference to the Department under the terms of general circulars, and local authorities also have general power under Section 7 of the Air-Raid Precautions Act, 1937, to incur expenditure on air-raid precautions. The latest available information as to the expenditure in these areas relates to the period 1st January, 1937, to 31st March, 1939. In that period, the expenditure, both capital and revenue, of the local authorities concerned on air-raid general precautions and air-raid fire precautions was, according to the local authority's returns, estimated as follows:
£ Glamorgan Co. 28,347 Monmouth Co. 9,939 Cardiff C.B. 18,807 Newport C.B. 14,417 Swansea C.B. 9,362 Towards this expenditure grants will be payable on the appropriate basis under the Act of 1937. The returns rendered by the local authorities are not in such a form as to enable it to be stated how much of the expenditure is attributable to salaries and how much to equipment. The above figures do not take any account of the substantial expenditure incurred by the Government in the free supply of equipment and appliances to the local authorities in question.