§ MR. W. T. WILSON (Lancashire, Westhoughton)To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department whether he can state the total amount of compensation paid for the licences that were extinguished in the years 1905, 1906, and 1907; the amount paid to licence holders who were also the tenants; the amount paid as compensation to the owners of tied houses; and the amount paid to the tenants of those houses, and to other parties interested in them.
986 (Answered by Mr. Secretary Gladstone.) The annual volumes of Licensing Statistics (see, for instance, page 5 of the volume for 1907), show that a total sum of £2,301,583 4s. 10d. was paid in compensation for licences extinguished in the years 1905, 1906, and 1907, and that, of the money which was paid in the years 1906 and 1907, a total sum of £241,004 9s. 3d. went to licence holders, and £1,947,343 19s. 8d. to other parties interested. I am unable to give figures distinguishing between licence holders who were tenants and those who were not, or between "tied" and other houses.
§ MR. CLOUGH (Yorkshire, W.R., Skipton)To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he can state how many licensed houses in the petty sessional divisions of East Staincliffe, West Staincliffe, Ewecross, and Bolton by Bowland, in the West Riding, have been closed under the Licensing Act, 1904; what amount was paid for compensation in respect of each house; what proportion of the money went to the owner of the house and to the tenant respectively; and what is the ratio of public-houses to population and the density of population in each of those areas.
(Answered by Mr. Secretary Gladstone.) The annual volumes of Licensing Statistics show that no licences were refused subject to compensation in any of the districts named in 1905 or 1906. In 1907, five alehouse licences in the East Staincliffe district were so refused, and four were paid for and closed before the termination of the year, the total amount of compensation being £3,651, of which a total sum of £550, or 15.06 per cent., was paid to licensees, leaving £3,101 for other parties. I am unable to give figures for individual houses. In the Ewecross division in 1907 one alehouse licence was refused and paid for, the amount of compensation being £826, of which the licensee was awarded £82 12s., or 10 per cent. (Licensing Statistics, 1907, page 91). Pages 68 and 69 of the same volume show the numbers of on-licences on 1st January, 1907, and the population and acreage (according to the Census of 1901) in these petty sessional 987 divisions, from which the ratios result:—
On Licences per 10,000 of Population. Persons per acre. East Staincliffe 25.12 .28 West Staincliffe 29.77 .09 Ewecross 37.14 .09 Bolton - by Bowland 50.04 .06