APPENDIX No. 4. PAPER forwarded by Sir Henry Bunbury, K.C.B. POST OFFICE. COMMERCIAL ACCOUNTS. APPORTIONMENT OF COMMON SERVICE EXPENDITURE. (Qs. 171-198.) The amount of expenditure from Votes for the year 1924-25 dealt with in the apportionment was, in round figures, as follows (see note at foot as to the proportion of each item actually apportioned): : £ 29,850,000 217,000 575,000 866,000 85.000 29,000 ... 297,000 "Sutton" and 662,000 392,000 ... Q. and R. Arrears of Civil Pay under other judgments T. (9-13) Appropriations in Aid Other Votes. Office of Works-Maintenance, etc. Treasury: Contributions in lieu of rates Treasury: Arrears of Civil Pay ... Stationery Office (excluding cost of Telephone Directory) In addition, the following charges or liabilities not directly or wholly derived from the Voted expenditure of the year are apportioned: — Rental Value of land and building (freehold and long 893,000 182,000 1,030,000 250,000 687.000 3,098,000 Basis of Apportionment of the above-mentioned Items of Expenditure. A. Salaries, etc. Returns furnished by each Head Office, Salaried Sub-Office, Surveyor's Office, District Manager's Office and Department during the year, showing the cost of salaries and wages for each grade, and dividing this cost between postal, telegraph and telephone according to the time actually occupied by the staff on the respective services during the period of the return. B. Travelling. "Trip" Allowances to officers employed in Sorting Carriages carried to Postal Account. The remainder of the expenditure divided according to the apportionment of Salaries and Wages, etc. C. Rent, etc. Expenditure on rent, rates, repairs and fittings apportioned on the basis of returns of cubic space in rented buildings allotted to the three services. Complete returns are taken every three years. (Alterations in rents are recorded and taken into account in apportioning the cost for the intervening years.) Payments for Water, Light and Heat are divided on the combined allocation of space in rented and freehold buildings. The cost of telephone call box accommodation is carried directly to telephones. G. Stores. Records are kept of the expenditure under main headings. The cost of Mail Bags, Letter Boxes, Stamping Machines, etc., is directly allocated to Postal Services. Uniform Clothing and Cycles divided according to the apportionment of the pay of the classes concerned. Freight charges on stores on the basis of the apportionment of the stores conveyed. The balance of the expenditure (about £58,000) is divided according to the general division of Salaries and Wages. H. Incidental Expenses, etc. Certain items, such as Compensation for Loss of Registered Letters directly allocated. Miscellaneous Cash losses divided in the proportions of the various cash transactions of the Post Office during the year. The balance of expenditure divided on the basis of the apportionment of Salaries and Wages. N. Gratuities, Injury Grants, etc. Cost analysed to show the amounts proper to particular classes of officers and the current apportionment of salaries and wages for each class applied. I, K, L. Engineering Expenditure (Electric Light and Power). Based on returns taken every three years of expenditure by Engineering Department on the various buildings served, this expenditure being in turn apportioned by Postmasters according to the user of the premises or plant. For the interim years the apportionment is varied according to the change in the general buildings apportionment. Q. and R. Arrears of Civil Pay under the "Sutton," etc., Judgments. Divided according to the apportionment of the Civil Pay during the War of the men affected. The sum charged against the Treasury Vote was similarly dealt with. T. Appropriations in Aid. Where amounts are earmarked they are allocated accordingly. Other receipts apportioned according to the corresponding items of expenditure. Miscellaneous receipts analysed under the various headings of the Commercial Accounts and apportioned accordingly. Office of Works, Maintenance, etc. Treasury Contributions in lieu of Rates. Apportioned according to the occupation by the several services of the Post Office buildings concerned. Stationery Office. Expenditure proper to one Service charged accordingly The balance of the expenditure divided according to Salaries and Wages of the staff (excluding industrial staff 56643 X 4 Rental value of land and buildings. See under "C. Rent, etc." above: similar returns are obtained for freehold and leasehold accommodation and the rental value (arrived at as explained on pp. 6-7 of the Commercial Accounts 1924-25) is apportioned on the same basis. Pension Liability. The total pensionable pay included under postal, telegraph and telephone in the returns taken for the apportionment of Salaries and Wages is further divided into amounts proper to "actuarial groups." To each of these groups a percentage laid down by the Government Actuary after actuarial valuation is applied in order to arrive at the total pension liability for the year under each service. NOTE. The approximate proportions of the aggregate expenditure under the various headings which it is possible to allocate directly to one or other of the three services (i.e. without actual apportionment) are as follows: A comparison of present and pre-war costs of materials and tailoring suits for Postmen and Telegraph Messengers is given below. These garments are the main items purchased by the Post Office and, representing more than two-thirds of the total, may be regarded as typical. Material. The principal item is blue serge, which represents about three-fourths of the total material cost and may be taken as fairly representative. The present cost of serge is about 43 per cent. above pre-war cost. Materials for serge (which account for approximately 60 per cent. of the total price) are about 30 per cent. and labour costs-spinning, weaving, etc.-119 per cent above pre-war. Tailoring. The present average cost of making Postmen's and Messenger's suits is about 85 per cent. above pre-war costs. Tailoring Trade Board wages have risen 96 per cent. for males and 115 per cent. for females, and as the ratio of males to females employed on Post Office Uniform Clothing work is about 1: 7, the average increase in wages is about 113 per cent. General Post Office. 10th March, 1926. APPENDIX No. 6. PAPER forwarded by Sir Lionel Earle, K.C.B., K.C.V.O., O.M.G. H.M. OFFICE OF WORKS AND PUBLIC BUILDINGS. COMPARISON OF STAFF AND COSTS BETWEEN THE YEARS 1913-14 AND 1925-26. (Qs. 377-388.) The average number of the total Administrative staff employed during 1913/14 was 666, and the comparable figure at the present time-1st January, 1926-is 1,756. (The figure of 770 which has been furnished to the Committee as the number of staff employed on 1st August, 1914, includes a total of 104 non-industrial staff-Messengers, Charwomen, etc, -who cannot be regarded as Administrative Staff and does not exactly compare with the figures shown for 1919 and subsequent post-war years.) The cost of the Administrative Staff of 666 for 1913/14 was £149,660 and the total expenditure on Works £2,484,894, so that the percentage of cost of Administrative Staff to expenditure on Works was 6-0 per cent. The cost of the Administrative Staff of 1,756 at the present time is approximately £548,000 and the total expenditure on Works is approximately £6,620,000, so that the percentage of cost of Administrative Staff to expenditure on Works is approximately 8.3 per cent. Neither the figure of £149,660 nor the figure of £548,000 includes general Establishment expenses (such as Superannuation charges; Rent of Accommodation, Rates, Fuel, Light, Furniture, Stationery, Printing, Law Charges etc) nor the cost of telegrams and telephones: the latter cost was in 1914 charged to Post Office Votes, but is now charged to the Vote for this Department. To explain this difference in the numbers of staff employed and in the percentage cost, it is necessary to take many factors into consideration; it is quite impossible to give the number and cost of the staff now engaged on similar services to those carried out by the pre-war staff of 666. The majority of the existing staff is employed partly on pre-war and partly on post-war services, and in no case is the work on post-war services dealt with by a staff employed solely for that purpose. Another factor which makes such a comparison impossible is that the method of dealing with certain work has been entirely revised, as, for example, the employment of direct labour instead of contract labour: the formation of a Maintenance Surveyors Division for the purpose of exercising stricter control over work and expenditure in connection with the ordinary maintenance of Government buildings instead of such work being, as heretofore, dealt with by Architects who alsc dealt with the erection of new buildings; the formation of a Directorate of Lands and Accommodation for the acquisition, custody, allocation and disposal of all land and premises with a view to securing, by means of frequent inspection and revision of accommodation, a more economical standard of occupation, work which was formerly done in part by the Architects and in part by officers in the Supplies Division; the introduction of a system of fuel rationing and stricter supervision of consumption, direct deliveries from collieries involving increased work at Headquarters but an economy in expenditure on fuel; the preparation in the Department by a specially trained and selected staff of schemes for constructional work in steel instead of, as in 1914, by an outside expert; etc. The increase in the staff numbers and cost as compared with those in 1913/14 is due, in the main, to the large number of additional services which the Department now has to perform and though it is not possible to work out the exact significance of this factor in relation to the number of staff employed in 1914, it has been estimated that the actual increase in staff caused by additional services is at least 100 per cent. compared with 1914. The additional work now performed by the Department compared with 1914 has arisen, primarily, out of the increase of Government staffs necessitated by the changed conditions-the creation of new Ministries such as the Ministry of Pensions, Air Ministry, Ministry of Labour and Ministry of Health, and the expansion of other Ministries owing to the extension of Government activities. In London alone, the Headquarter's staffs, which totalled nearly 18,000 in 1914 and 50,000 in 1923, are now approximately 36,000, occupying accommodation to the extent of over 3 million square feet, as compared with 1,800,000 before the War. This work has entailed, and must for long entail, continual movements of staff with a view to the surrender, at the earliest possible moment, of hired premises and to the allocation of accommodation in the most economical and satisfactory manner. The relative increase outside London has been even greater, as certain Departments, such as the Ministry of Pensions, have found it necessary to decentralise their work far more than was done by any pre-war Department. Secondly, there has been the addition of entirely new services largely arising out of the War, such as the equipment and maintenance of training institutions for disabled and other ex-service men for the Ministries of Pensions and Labour, the provision of sanatoria for tuberculous ex-service men; the management, maintenance and disposal of housing estates comprising over 9,700 houses transferred from the Ministry of Munitions; the maintenance of coastguard stations transferred from the Admiralty, and of life saving apparatus transferred from the Mercantile Marine Department, Board of Trade; the custody and maintenance of properties pending disposal by the surplus stores. etc.; Liquidation Department of the Treasury; the erection and maintenance of wireless stations on behalf of the Post Office; Irish ServicesImperial and Reserved Services in Northern Ireland, Imperial Services in the Irish Free State, and services under Section 34 of the Government of Ireland Act, 1920. Thirdly, the growth of taxation and Customs duties has necessitated a very heavy increase in the number of tax and revenue offices and the increased responsibilities of the State, arising out of the new Unemployment, Health and Pensions Insurance Acts have given rise to many new demands in connection with the provision of Employment Exchanges and of additional accommodation for Headquarters administrative staff, while the continuous and rapid expansion of Post Office and telephone services has added considerably to the work of the Department. Fourthly, a large number of services, which were not previously carried out by this Department, are now performed for other pre-War Departments, e.g., the supply of furniture, on a repayment basis, for G.O.C.'s residences at home and abroad on behalf of the War Office; the furnishing of all Embassy and Legation Houses abroad, whether or not owned or hired by H.M. Government, whereas |