MAJORITY REPORT. 
a contract of service in manual labour, or in non-manual 
employment at a rate of remuneration not exceeding £250 a 
year. The total number of persons insured exceeds 15,000,000. 
Certain employments, although falling within the general 
definition given above, are excepted from compulsory insurance, 
the chief of these being employment under the Crown or a Local 
Authority where the conditions of employment include provision 
against sickness not less favourable than that secured under the 
Act. Provision is also made under which employed persons who 
are in receipt of a pension or private income of £96 a year or 
upwards, or who are ordinarily and mainly dependent on some 
other person, or some non-insurable occupation, may secure 
exemption, in which case they themselves, but not their 
employers, are exempted from the liability to pay contributions. 
The total number of exempt persons has never been considerable, 
and is at the present time only about 36,000. In addition to the 
persons (known as employed contributors) who are required to 
be insured, the Scheme provides for the inclusion as voluntary 
contributors of persons who, after having been employed and 
insured for at least two years, elect, on ceasing to be insurably 
employed, fo continue in insurance, paying the whole weekly 
contribution themselves. The number of voluntary contributors 
is at present only about 32,000. Tt may be observed that the 
present provisions relating to voluntary contributors represent a 
great restriction on the arrangements contemplated in the original 
Act. At the outset the Scheme provided for the inclusion as 
voluntary contributors of those persons who, by reason of the 
fact that they worked on their own account, did not come under 
the compulsory provisions of the Act. The response made, 
however, showed that there was practically no demand for 
insurance on a voluntary basis; and accordingly in 1918 future 
admission to the class of voluntary contributors was restricted 
to those who had for a definite period been insured as employed 
contributors. 
14. The cost of the Scheme is shared between the insured 
persons, their employers and the National Exchequer. The 
revenue is derived, in the first instance; from weekly contribu- 
tions paid partly by the workers and partly by their employers 
by means of health insurance stamps affixed to contribution 
cards, the rates of contribution in 1925 being 10d. a week in the 
case of men, of which 5d. was payable by the employer and 5d. by 
the worker ; and 9d. in the case of women, of which 5d. was 
payable by the employer and 4d. by the worker. As from the 
4th January, 1926, these rates have been reduced to 9d. a week 
in the case of men (employer 44d. worker 41d.) and 81d. a week 
in the case of women (employer 4}d., worker 4d.) consequent 
upon the modifications in the benefits of the Scheme which follow 
from the provision of pensions at 65 under the recent Widows’, 
Orphans’, and Old Age Contributory Pensions Act. The contri.