Oral Answers to Questions — National Insurance – in the House of Commons at 12:00 am on 13 April 1948.
Sir Ian Fraser
, Lonsdale
12:00,
13 April 1948
asked the Minister of National Insurance if he will arrange for those who wish to do so to compound their National Health Insurance contributions by a lump sum payable in advance, which would help the Treasury and make the payer a life member.
Mr James Griffiths
, Llanelly
Such arrangements could not be made without amending legislation. I think that both the Department and insured persons should be given time to gain practical experience of the working of the new scheme before any such change in the law is considered.
Sir Ian Fraser
, Lonsdale
May I suggest seriously to the Minister that he should discuss with the Chancellor of the exchequer the advisability of adopting this proposal? Does he not think it would be convenient, and would it not provide a draft of money on the future which would be far more convenient than the capital levy, and would be voluntary?
Mr James Griffiths
, Llanelly
We have no information as to what number of people would care to take advantage of a proposal of this kind. It would mean an Amendment of the existing Act, and I think we had better get experience of how the scheme, as outlined in the Act, works before we make any change in it.
Lieut-Commander Joseph Braithwaite
, Holderness
Is there any arrangement for life membership of this House?
Sir Archer Baldwin
, Leominster
Is the Minister aware that a life composition is a fairly general feature in many societies, and is found to work excellently?
Mr James Griffiths
, Llanelly
As I have said, we have no indication that there would be any large number of people who would want to make an arrangement of this kind. I think the method of payment by insurance stamps is the best for the large Majority of the contributors, and we had better see how it works.
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 chancellor of the exchequer is the government's chief financial minister and as such is responsible for raising government revenue through taxation or borrowing and for controlling overall government spending.
The chancellor's plans for the economy are delivered to the House of Commons every year in the Budget speech.
The chancellor is the most senior figure at the Treasury, even though the prime minister holds an additional title of 'First Lord of the Treasury'. He normally resides at Number 11 Downing Street.
As a bill passes through Parliament, MPs and peers may suggest amendments - or changes - which they believe will improve the quality of the legislation.
Many hundreds of amendments are proposed by members to major bills as they pass through committee stage, report stage and third reading in both Houses of Parliament.
In the end only a handful of amendments will be incorporated into any bill.
The Speaker - or the chairman in the case of standing committees - has the power to select which amendments should be debated.
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.
