§ 31. Mr. Hoggasked the Attorney-General how many writs of capias have been issued in each of the last 10 years; and in how many cases there has been actual imprisonment in consequence.
§ The Attorney-GeneralThe writ ofcapias ad satisfaciendum is in practice used in cases in which the Board of Inland Revenue or the Commissioners of Customs and Excise are seeking to recover monies due to the Crown and where there is reason to suspect gross fraud or a deliberate attempt to evade payment of the debt. I regret that exact figures as to the 78W number of writs issued during the past ten years are only available in respect of the former Department, but figures have been extracted showing the position over the last four years in the case of the latter. I will circulate these figures, together with figures showing the actual number of debtors imprisoned on them, in the OFFICIAL REPORT. So far as the Board of Inland Revenue is concerned, the figures range from 743 writs issued and 12 persons imprisoned in 1936 to 165 writs issued and four persons imprisoned in 1945. The number of writs issued by the Commissioners of Customs and Excise has varied between seven in 1942 and 36 in 1945 and a total of 22 persons were imprisoned on those writs in the period under review Of these, 14 were imprisoned in 1945 in connection with Purchase Tax evasions.
Following are the figures:
Year. Writs of capias issued Cases of Imprisonment by Inland Revenue. by Customs & Excise. by Inland Revenue. by Customs & Excise. 1936 743 — 12 — 1937 719 — 13 — 1938 670 — 14 — 1939 529 — 13 — 1940 752 — 7 — 1941 588 — 6 — 1942 490 7 6 3 1943 350 18 6 2 1944 231 21 2 2 1945 165 36 4 14