Oral Answers to Questions — Unemployment. – in the House of Commons at on 6 February 1929.
Sir John Power
, Wimbledon
asked the Minister of Labour for the latest available dates, the number of persons on the live register of the Employment Exchanges who were in receipt of benefit; and the number not in receipt of benefit?
Mr Arthur Steel-Maitland
, Birmingham Erdington
Statistics are not available regarding the number of persons on the live register who are actually in receipt of benefit. At 21st January, 1929, out of a total of 1,425,620 persons on the registers of Employment Exchanges in Great Britain, 1,222,201 had claims to benefit admitted or under consideration, leaving a balance of 203,419 who had no such claims. I should add that, while there are no exact statistics on the point, a considerable proportion of non-claimants are not insured persons.
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.
