§ MR. HODGE (Lancashire, Gorton)To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many licences have been remitted for compensation under the Licensing Act, 1904, by the licensing authorities in the Gorton (South-East Lancashire) Parliamentary Division, the amount of compensation paid in each case, and how distributed between the parties interested in such licences; can he state how many licences have been given up by brewers by way of barter in the division above referred to, and separately for the district covered by such licensing authority of the county borough of Manchester, for full licences in the same districts covered by such licensing authorities or for rebuilding of unsuitable premises with extended drinking or other facilities, and how much compensation, if any, was paid to the licence-holder of such licences so given up in barter, or what compensation, if any, was given to the owners of the property in which such licences existed; and will he state in how many cases the magistrates in the districts named, being dissatisfied with the suitability of the premises in which licences existed, gave opportunity of improvement, to the licence-holder or owner, interfered for the protection of adjoining tenants warned out so that such premises could be utilised for such improvements, if the magistrates had not so interfered would compensation have been paid, and did the notice given except in the case of a lease never exceed four weeks.
225 (Answered by Mr. Secretary Gladstone.) I regret that the information at my disposal does not enable me to answer any part of this Question. All the available particulars as to the operation of the Licensing Acts, including compensation proceedings under the Act of 1904, are given in the annual volumes of Licensing Statistics; but those particulars are necessarily compiled according to licensing districts. The Gorton Parliamentary Division comprises small parts of three licensing districts; and it is not possible, without great and totally disproportionate labour, if at all, to rearrange the particulars of those licensing districts so as to show how much of them relates to the Parliamentary division. So far as the Question relates to the circumstances in which occupiers of premises, whether licensed or not, may be dispossessed otherwise than in direct pursuance of the powers of the justices under the Licensing Acts, the matter is outside my jurisdiction, and I regret that I have no information on the subject.