MR. STANLEY LEIGH TON (Shropshire, Oswestry)I beg to ask the Attorney General whether he can inform the House what is the present amount of the dormant funds in Chancery; whether the amount is increasing or decreasing; and whether the Government will give greater facilities to claimants in investigating their claims by publishing in The Gazette in each case the dates of the suits, the amounts of the dormant funds, and any other information in their possession?
§ SIR J. RIGBY(who replied) said: The lists of the funds called by the hon. Member dormant funds are published triennially. The amount of the funds at the last triennial publication was a little over £1,160,000. This was somewhat larger than the amount at the previous triennial publication, which again was larger than the amount at the publication before it. In fact, the fund is an increasing one. With regard to the dates of the suits, they are already given in all cases in which they can be given without an elaborate and expensive inquiry, and it is not thought that it would be of any use to claimants to give 442 the earlier dates. As to the amounts, they only exceed £100 in about one-third of the cases, and the number in which they exceed £1,000 is a very small proportion of the whole. The question was fully considered in 1887, and again in 1890, and the Treasury, who have the control of the matter, did not then think, and do not now think, that any further information is required or ought to be published.