– in the House of Commons at on 9 September 1941.
Mr Cecil Poole
, Lichfield
asked the Secretary of State for War how many months in arrear are the subsistence allowance payments to the Walsall battalion of the Home Guard; what is the reason for the delay; and when will the payments be brought up to date?
Mr David Margesson
, Rugby
I understand that in certain companies of this battalion there has been a delay of four to five months in meeting claims for subsistence allowance as a result of various difficulties that had arisen in the machinery for handling these claims. Immediate steps are being taken to bring the payments up to date and instruction; have recently been issued which should prevent further delays of this kind.
Mr Cecil Poole
, Lichfield
In view of the fact that this is the second occasion on which this battalion has fallen into arrears, can we take it that the Minister has issued definite instructions that there should be no repetition of this accumulation of arrears?
Mr David Margesson
, Rugby
Yes, Sir; it is my hope that the instructions will prevent it.
Secretary of State was originally the title given to the two officials who conducted the Royal Correspondence under Elizabeth I. Now it is the title held by some of the more important Government Ministers, for example the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs.
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.
