MAJORITY REPORT. 
provisions on a non-insurance basis for that class of persons 
known as deposit contributors, who cannot, or do not attempt 
fo, obtain admission to an Approved Society. The existence of 
this class, which in 1911 was not intended to be given permanent 
existence, raises a number of difficult problems, which are 
discussed in Chapter XII of our Report. 
17. A general supervision over the administration of the 
Scheme on behalf of the Central Government is undertaken in 
England and Wales by the Ministry of Health and in Scotland 
by the Scottish Board of Health. These Departments have 
an outside staff of inspectors distributed over the country, 
whose primary duty is to secure compliance with the provisions 
of the Act relating to the payment of contributions. The 
prompt payment of the contribution in respect of the 15 
million insured persons week by week is a feature of the 
Scheme essential on financial grounds and remarkable as a piece 
of administrative machinery. The administration of medical 
benefit and of certain minor matters relating to deposit contri- 
butors and other classes is entrusted to specially appointed 
bodies, created under the Act of 1911, known as Insurance Com- 
mittees. Such a Committee exists in each county and county 
borough in England and Wales and in each of the counties and 
larger burghs in Scotland. There are in Fngland and Wales 
145 such Committees, and in Scotland, 54. The cash benefits 
and additional benefits are administered by Approved Societies, 
which are self-governing bodies of insured persons who elect to 
group themselves together for the purposes of the Act. There 
are at the present time about 1,000 Approved Societies engaged 
in the administration of the Act, including 31 Societies with 
Branches. The Branches, which number about 7,000, are 
independent financial units for the purpose of National Health 
Insurance; they possess also a considerable measure of 
administrative independence, but are integral parts of the parent 
organisations to which respectively they belong and are subject 
to the general authority thereof. Approved Societies are not as a 
rule organised on any territorial basis, though in the nature of 
the case the membership of many of them is preponderantly 
localised. They vary in membership from less than 50 to more 
than 2,000,000 insured persons. Some are restricted to persons 
engaged in particular occupations or belonging to particular 
religious denominations or having some other common bond of 
interest ; while others are open fo all insured persons without 
qualification. For certain purposes Approved Societies may also 
be conveniently viewed in relation to other work carried on by 
them or their promoters, and from this point of view they may be 
classified into Societies formed in the Friendly Society move- 
ment, those instituted by the great Industrial Insurance Com- 
panies, those organised in connection with Trade Unions, and