§ MR. SEARSI beg to ask Mr. Chancellor of the Exchequer if he will cause inquiry to be made to ascertain the percentage of assessments made by
† See (4)Debates, clix., 919.239 parochial assessors which the surveyors of taxes, in the time at their disposal, revise and amend before they can be transmitted to the clerks to commissioners; and will he also ascertain the percentage of assessments which have to be amended after issue of notices to pay and before payment is made.
§ MR. MCKENNAUnder Sections 51, 52 and 56 of the Taxes Management Act, 1880, it is the duty of a surveyor of taxes to examine every return and every assessment delivered by assessors in the years (every fifth year) in which new property tax and house duty assessments are made. It would hardly be possible, at any rate it would involve enormous labour, to go through the 15,000,000 or thereabouts of assessments and to determine the percentage of corrections made by surveyors. As regards the latter part of the Question, in the last year of a new assessment, 1903–4, the number of assessments, as finally settled, was over 13,000,000, and the percentage of corrections after issue of notices to pay was 1.6 per cent.