§ MR. SEARS (Cheltenham)To ask Mr. Chancellor of the Exchequer whether Members of the House have the privilege of nominating persons for appointment as land tax commissioners; and, if so, at what time and under what conditions.
1536 (Answered by Mr. Asquith.) Commissioners of land tax are appointed, as occasion requires, by special Acts of Parliament, called "Land Tax Commissioners' Names Acts." The last Act was passed in 1899. Names are inserted in a Schedule deposited with the Clerk of the House of Commons, which is printed in the London Gazette. This Schedule is made up of lists of names delivered by Members of the House to the Public Bill Office, in accordance with a Resolution of the House passed after the Second Reading: of the Bill (e.g., Resolution of 17th July, 1899). It has long been the practice of the Board of Inland Revenue, though they are under no statutory obligation to do so, when such Bill is introduced, to send a circular to each clerk to commissioners of land tax suggesting that he should draw up a list of suitable persons and send it to the Member for his division, with a request that, if the Member do not disapprove the names, he will sign it and deliver it to the Public Bill Office. In practice this procedure is, I understand, generally followed.