§ 35. Mr. Bensonasked the Financial Secretary to the Treasury whether he will give the figure of expenditure on public social services in 1944–45 and 1945–46.
§ Mr. Glenvil HallYes, Sir. Following is a statement giving the figures for 1944–45 (or the latest available year) and 1945–46. These are comparable with the figures published in the OFFICIAL REPORT for 13th December, 1945, in respect of 1943–44 and 1944–45.
461WPUBLIC SOCIAL SERVICES.
Total Expenditure under Certain Acts of Parliament (other than expenditure out of loans for capital purposes or out of capital receipts).
NOTE.—This Statement gives the expenditure on Public Social Services in 1944–45 and 1945–46, the latest years for which details are available, which would have been included in Part I of the return to be published in continuation of Command 5906 of November, 1938. Reference should be made to Command 5906 for comparable expenditure in earlier years and for information as to the basis on which the return is compiled, but it should be observed that the explanatory notes given in that return are not now accurate in all respects.
462W463W
Service. England and Wales. Scotland. 1944–45 (or latest available year) Great Britain. Total number of persons directly benefiting from the expenditure included in Column 5. Financial Year commencing 1st April. Financial Year commencing 1st April. 1944 (or latest available year). 1945 (estimated). 1944 (or latest available year). 1945 (estimated). (1) (2) (3) (4) (5) (6) £'000 £'000 £'000 £'000 £'000 England and Wales. Scotland. (a) Unemployment Insurance and Unemployment Assistance Acts: (i) Unemployment Benefit, etc., General Scheme 4,939 13,441 1,549 3,317 6,488 11,227,000* 1,334,000* (ii) Unemployment Benefit, etc., Agricultural Scheme 229 299 33 41 262 569,000* 83,000* (iii) Unemployment Allowances 1,213 1,956 448 614 1,661 Not available. Not available. (iv) Prevention and Relief of Distress 594 322 31 30 625 (b) National Health Insurance Acts 47,409† 50,875† 5,590† 6,087† 52,999 22,141,000* 2,529,000* (c) Widows', Orphans' and Old Age Contributory Pensions Acts 56,285‡ 57,386‡ 6,555‡ 6,634‡ 62,840 2,536,000 301,000 (d) Old Age Pensions Acts 50,510 52,396 5,691 5,821 56,201 2,156,000 241,000 (e) Old Age and Widows' Pensions Act, 1940, etc.: Supplementary Pensions 52,815 56,896 5,281 5,565 58,096 Not available. Not available. (f) War Pensions Acts and the Ministry of Pensions Act (War of 1914?18) 29,741 30,658 3,266 3,360 33,007 609,280 66,790 (g) Pensions (Navy, Army, Air Force and Mercantile Marine) Act, 1939; Personal Injuries (Emergency Provisions) Act, 1939; Military Training Act, 1939; Reserve and Auxiliary Forces Act, 1939 (War of 1939?45) 38,954 43-131 4,794 5,427 43,748 964,980 119,570 464W
Service. England and Wales. Scotland. 1944-45 (or latest available Year) Great Britain. Total number of persons directly benefiting from the expenditure included in Column 5. Financial Year commencing 1st April. Financial Year commencing 1st April. 1944 (or latest available year) 1945 (estimated) 1944 (or latest available year). 1945 (estimated) (1) (2) (3) (4) (5) (6) £000 £'000 £'000 £000 £'000 England and Wales. Scotland. (h) Education Acts 136,537 169,209 19,397 24,209 155,934 Not available. 915,573 (i) Physical Training and Recreation Act 1 3 — — 1 Not avilable. — (j) Acts relating to Approved Schools 1,732§ 2,446 287 324 2,019 11,111 3,721 (k) Public Health Acts so far as they relate to: (i) Hospitals and Treatment of Disease 19,657 Not available 3,312 Not available 22,789 Not available Not available (ii) Maternity and child welfare Work 4,564 966 7,157 (l) Midwives Acts 1,627 (m) Housing Acts 46,077 9,141 55,218 — — (n) Acts relating to the Relief of the Poor 35,944 4,572 40,516 570,295 104,215 (o) Lunacy and Mental Treatment Acts 3,567 1,983 10,219 127,629 22,000 (p) Mental Deficiency Acts 4,669 Not available Totals 537,064 72,716 609,780 NOTES. * Numbers given are those of insured persons at 3rd July, 1944;Unemployment) and 31st December, 1945 (Health). See paragraph 6 on page 5 of 8 Command 5906. ‡ The figures given in columns 1 and 3 and columns 2 and 4 relate to the calendar years 1945 and 1946, respectively. • These figures refer to expenditure from the Pensions Account, the Special Pensions Account, the Pensions (Scotland) Account and the Special Pensions (Scotland) Account. Surpluses and deficits in these Accounts are dealt with by transfers to and from the Treasury Pensions Account and the Treasury Special Pensions Account, which cover both England and Wales and Scotland and into which annual contributions are paid by the Exchequer. For the financial year 1944–45 the amount of the Exchequer contribution was £22,525,000. § Of this figure £284,000, representing expenditure by local authorities, relates to the financial year 1942–43, the latest year for which figures are available.