§ MR. HEYWOOD JOHNSTONETo ask the Secretary to the Treasury, if, having regard to the answer given by his predecessor to the hon. Member for North-West Sussex, on 2nd March 1899, any provision has been made, or is being made, to meet the pressure of work in the offices of the surveyors of taxes caused by the increased rate of income tax and consequent increase in claims for exemption and abatement; and whether any extra clerical assistance has yet been given, or is contemplated, to meet the further pressure caused by the forthcoming quinquennial revaluation under Schedules A and B.
(Answered by Mr. Hayes Fisher.) The answer to both parts of the Question is in the affirmative. Since March, 1899, the established staff has been increased by fourteen surveyors and twenty-five assistant surveyors, and a further increase has been sanctioned as from the 1st April, 1903, of thirteen surveyors. The number of clerks has been increased by eighty-one since 1899, and a further increase of nineteen has been sanctioned from the 1st April, 1903. The work of the quinquennial assessment will next year be executed on a new system, which will spread the work over a longer period. Some of the work has, in fact, already been done. An addition of about £9,000 has been sanctioned to the outlay for extra clerical assistance hitherto expended at this period.
§ †See (4) Debates, lxvii., 1016.