Oral Answers to Questions — Unemployment. – in the House of Commons at on 13 March 1929.
Mr Alfred Short
, Wednesbury
asked the Minister of Labour whether he is aware of the dissatisfaction among the unemployed signing at the Tipton Employment Exchange owing to the frequent existence of queues; and will he take steps to obviate this?
Sir Henry Betterton
, Rushcliffe
Normally there are no queues at this Exchange. Owing to the recent severe weather there was a certain amount of congestion during two weeks, but this was due to illness amongst the staff and a simultaneous rise in unemployment.
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.
