Oral Answers to Questions — Unemployment. – in the House of Commons at on 13 March 1929.
Mr Harry Day
, Southwark Central
asked the Minister of Labour the number of prosecutions instituted by his Department for the 12 months ended to the last convenient date against employers for failing to stamp the unemployment insurance cards of their employés?
Sir Henry Betterton
, Rushcliffe
The number of employers prosecuted during 1928 for failure to stamp or for unlawful detention of unemployment books was 681. In the Majority of these cases there was failure to stamp the books, but I regret that I am unable to supply separate figures. In addition 149 persons were prosecuted for affixing previously used stamps to unemployment books.
Mr Harry Day
, Southwark Central
Will the hon. Gentleman consider amending the Act so that the penalties can be made higher, because many of the fines that have been inflicted on employers do not cover the amounts that they have saved by not having the books kept?
Sir Henry Betterton
, Rushcliffe
There is no question at the moment of any amending legislation, and no doubt every relevant consideration will be taken into account when such legislation is proposed.
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.
The term "majority" is used in two ways in Parliament. Firstly a Government cannot operate effectively unless it can command a majority in the House of Commons - a majority means winning more than 50% of the votes in a division. Should a Government fail to hold the confidence of the House, it has to hold a General Election. Secondly the term can also be used in an election, where it refers to the margin which the candidate with the most votes has over the candidate coming second. To win a seat a candidate need only have a majority of 1.
