Oral Answers to Questions — National Health Insurance. – in the House of Commons at on 16 July 1925.
Mr Herbert Williams
, Reading
asked the Minister of Health the number of employed persons in this country who are not insured under the National Health Insurance Acts?
Mr Neville Chamberlain
, Birmingham, Ladywood
As the answer is necessarily long and contains a number of figures I will, with the hon. Member's permission, circulate it in the OFFICIAL REPORT.
No precise information of the kind desired by my hon. Friend is available. The number of employed persons aged 12 or over in Great Britain in 1921, according to the Census of that year, was 17,403,053, of whom it is estimated that 16,432,000 were over 16, and the estimated number of persons entitled to benefits under the National Health Insurance Acts in the same year was 15,134,000. The latter figure, however, includes some persons who had ceased to be employed, and for this and other reasons it is not directly comparable with the Census figure. The balance of 1,208,000, therefore, is only a rough approximation to the number of uninsured employed persons, of whom the principal groups are non-manual workers earning more than £250 a year and persons engaged in excepted employment under the Crown and local authorities and certain statutory companies.
Ministers make up the Government and almost all are members of the House of Lords or the House of Commons. There are three main types of Minister. Departmental Ministers are in charge of Government Departments. The Government is divided into different Departments which have responsibilities for different areas. For example the Treasury is in charge of Government spending. Departmental Ministers in the Cabinet are generally called 'Secretary of State' but some have special titles such as Chancellor of the Exchequer. Ministers of State and Junior Ministers assist the ministers in charge of the department. They normally have responsibility for a particular area within the department and are sometimes given a title that reflects this - for example Minister of Transport.
