Orders of the Day — Finance Bill

Part of the debate – in the House of Commons at 12:00 am on 8 May 1951.

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Photo of Sir Waldron Smithers Sir Waldron Smithers , Orpington 12:00, 8 May 1951

Even Sir Stafford Cripps said in his Budget last year:

" But unless there is a comparable increase in production, wage increases cannot take place without serious financial consequences."—[OFFICIAL REPORT, 18th April, 1950; Vol. 474; c. 65.]

There is one point I want to make here. We ought to be trying to cut down expenses. I cannot find out the exact figures of the numbers in the Civil Service now compared with pre-war because the Government very cleverly altered the basis of the computation which they made last year. The increase in the number of civil servants for the nine years ending 1949 is 760,000. That is the best guess we can make. After making inquiries from authorative sources, it is impossible to draw any accurate comparison between the present and the old figure, but we have the reason to believe that the number of persons in national and local Government service is about 761,000 more than before the war.

Here is a point I should like hon. Members to notice. An accountant friend of mine has worked it out that if we reckon what they earn as drones in the hives and what they might earn as bees in the hives, they are costing the country £1,500 a year each.