asked the First Commissioner of Works if he can give an approximate date when the refacing and repairing work now in progress on the Houses of Parliament will be completed?

It is anticipated that the work will be completed in 1941.

May I draw the right hon. Gentleman's attention to the fact that visitors are getting the impression that this is a permanent structure, that it is always going to remain; and will he hurry on the work even if it requires extra labour to get it done?

When we have done the main work, which I hope will be a long time before 1941, there will still be a lot of small details, but the appearance to the general public will not be as bad as this year and next year.

Cannot more labour be employed and the work completed at an earlier date?

It is entirely a question of working in economic units. There were strong representations last year that we should not do what my hon. Friend suggests and try to crowd it in, but that we should work in economic units, with a more or less fixed number of skilled men—they are very largely skilled men—and with fixed units in size of material and the rest of it.

Can the right hon. Gentleman tell us what the approximate estimate will be?

I gave that the other day: in all, from when we began to repair till the end, three-quarters of a million.

Can my right hon. Friend say in what year it will be necessary to start repairing the work that is now being done?