§ MR. WHITEHEADTo ask the Secretary to the Treasury whether vans used as dwellings are subject to any duty corresponding to Inhabited House Duty or the licence duty on carriages or, like motor cars, are required to be registered and to bear a reference number; and, if not, whether His Majesty's Government, with a view to more effective control over dwellers in vans by the sanitary, police, and education authorities, will introduce legislation to provide for such registration, bearing of a reference number and payment of a licence duty.
(Answered by Mr. Runciman.) I am informed that vans used as dwellings by the gipsy class are not chargeable with licence duty. They are trade carts, and hawkers' licences are taken. Caravans used as dwellings for pleasure, or other than trade purposes, are carriages within the meaning of the Act and chargeable with licence duty.