§ MR. DAVID THOMASI beg to ask the President of the Local Government Board if he can state to what extent if any, the County Councils of Wales and Monmouthshire have availed themselves of Section 81 of The Local Government Act, 1888, empowering them to take combined action for any purpose in respect of which they are jointly interested; and whether any difficulty has arisen under the provision in Sub-section 6 for meeting the costs of a Joint Committee.
§ MR. GRANT LAWSONI am unable to say to what extent the powers conferred by the section mentioned by the hon. Member have been acted upon in 590 Wales and Monmouthshire. I know of one case of the kind. I am not aware that any difficulty has arisen in meeting the costs of the Joint Committee. A question was, however, brought before the Local Government Board as to whether the accounts of the Committee could, for the purposes of audit, be treated as separate from the County accounts, and the Board pointed out that there was no statutory provision for the audit of the accounts of the Committee as a separate authority.