§ MR. CORBETT (Glasgow, Tradeston)To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he can state in how many cases in England and Wales the renewal of victuallers' licences was refused last year on the ground that they were not required (after allowing for the results of appeals); and what proportion this number bears to the total number of such licences.
(Answered by Mr. Secretary Akers-Douglas.) The only information in my possession on the points put by the hon. Member is contained in the Return of Licences Refused issued last year (Parliamentary Paper No. 194). From the summary of that Return it appears that in 167 cases the licensing justices refused the renewal of victuallers' licences on the ground that they were not required. For the purposes of the appeal figures it is not possible to distinguish between those cases and the 169 other cases in which licences were refused on the ground that they were not required, coupled with other grounds. Taking these 336 refusals together it may be estimated from the body of the Return that in about 100 cases an appeal was allowed. This would leave about 230 cases in which the licences were finally refused; and, on the figures shown in the last annual Report of the Board of Inland Revenue, viz.: 67,055 victuallers' licences granted in the 1476 year 1902–3, the proportion would be about one in 290.