§ Mr. Chetwyndasked the President of the Board of Trade whether he will give the yearly totals of expenditure under Section 3 of the Distribution of Industry Act, 1945, the Distribution of Industry Act, 1950, and the Distribution of Industry (Industrial Finance) Act, 1958.
§ Mr. MaudlingIt would involve a disproportionate amount of work to extract yearly expenditure under Section 3 of the Distribution of Industry Act, 1945, as this Section confers powers on a number of different Ministers. Total expenditure under this Section for the period 1945–58 is approximately £13.5 million. Expenditure under the Distribution of Industry (Industrial Finance) Act, 1958, is accounted for by the Treasury, and I am informed that for the financial year 1958–59 after the Act was passed expenditure totalled £45,000.
121WThe figures for expenditure under the 1950 Act, so far as they are separately accounted for, as as follows:
Year Expenditure 1950–51 … … 85,204 1951–52 … … 70,500 1952–53 … … 38,063 1953–54 … … 31,162 1954–55 … … 80,126 1955–56 … … 84,344 1956–57 … … 17,307 1957–58 … … 12,325 1958–59 … … 13,794 NOTE: These figures relate to expenditure under Section 3 of the Distribution of Industry Act, 1950. No separate records are kept of expenditure under the other provisions of the Act.