§ MR. WATT (Glasgow, College)To ask Mr. Chancellor of the Exchequer whether he is aware that the clerks to surveyors of taxes are now the only large body of men employed in Government offices in the capacity of clerks who are not on the establishment; and, seeing that in nearly all the districts of the United Kingdom those clerks check most of and register all new claims for repayment of income-tax, interview the public, and instruct them in the filling up of these claims and in the making of their returns and appeals, whether he will take stops to place them on the establishment.
(Answered by Mr. Asquith.) The routine work in connection with claims for repayment and the other matters mentioned in the Question is preformed by the clerks. If a taxpayer calls at a surveyor's office the clerk will ask him his business and, if the matter is a trivial one, will give the information required, but the surveyor himself deals with all points of importance. As regards the question of placing the clerks on the establishment, I can add nothing to the numerous replies already given on the subject by my hon. friend the Secretary to the Treasury and myself.