§ VISCOUNT MORPETH (Birmingham, S.)To ask the Secretary to the Treasury why a fee is charged to dividing societies asking for exemption from valuation as a repayment for trouble and expense, whilst no fee is charged to those societies which do send valuations involving as much labour and expense as the examination of applications for exemption; and whether he will take such steps as will prevent the preferential treatment of one type of society from discouraging other societies, on whom the fee is imposed from applying for registration under the Act.
(Answered by Mr. Hobhouse.) The noble Lord is wrong in his assumption that the annual returns and quinquennial valuations involve as much labour and expense to the office as the granting of certificates of exemption from valuation. In the former case the labour and expense is borne by the society and in the latter by the office. In the former case the office receives them and uses them for statistical purposes provided they are duly audited or valued according to the provisions of the Friendly Societies Act. In the latter case the office has to examine the rules and the accounts in order to be satisfied that the particular society is one which is entitled to a certificate of exemption. The fee is not obligatory on dividing societies, as it is open to them to place themselves in the same position as accumulating societies by bein valued, and this is in fact done by some of them. The fee is only £2 every five years, and the total cost works out at 8s. a year. The relative numbers of the two classes of societies registered before and since the regulation came in force do not bear out the suggestion of the fee having had the effect of discouraging the registration of dividing societies. I do not propose to take any steps in the matter.