HC Deb 11 May 1911 vol 25 cc1372-3
Mr. PATRICK WHITE

asked the Secretary to the Treasury whether he will state the amount of taxes collected, and from what sources, in England, Scotland, and Ireland, respectively, by Government officers and applied to local or other purposes without being paid into the Exchequer; the purposes to which they are applied in each country; whether there are any non-tax revenues similarly dealt with; and, if so, will he give a like return of their collection and application?

Mr. ILLINGWORTH

Apart from the local taxation licences in England and Wales referred to in Section 6 of the Finance Act, 1908 (as amended by the Finance (1909–10) Act, 1910, and the Revenue Act, 1911) which in certain cases are collected by the Post Office on behalf of county councils, no Imperial taxes are now collected by Government officers and applied to local or other purposes without being paid into the Exchequer in any part of the United Kingdom. The amount collected by the Post Office on behalf of county councils in England and Wales in 1910–11 was £1,670,000. The expression "non-tax Revenue" is used to denote moneys paid into the Exchequer other than the proceeds of taxation. These receipts are of so Miscellaneous a character as to make a category of similar receipts not payable to the Exchequer incapable of definition, but, speaking generally, no moneys are received by Government officers and accounted for directly to local authorities except the proceeds of the local taxation licences to which I have already referred.