§ MR. FIELDTo ask Mr. Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether, since the Local Government Board for Ireland has been constituted by the Old-Age Pensions Act the central pension authority in Ireland and the local pension committee have been made the tribunal (subject to the Local Government Board) for determining the merit of claims, he can state by what authority the Board of Inland Revenue has usurped these powers of the Local Government Board and the local committees in certain cases and taken into the hands of the Somerset House staff the decision of claims on which its officers differ before the local pension committee is allowed to have information of the claim at all.
(Answered by Mr. Lloyd-George.) The Board of Inland Revenue has no power to "decide" any claim to an old-age pension, nor am I aware of any case 257 in which they have claimed to exercise such a power.