§ 28. Mr. PRETYMANasked the Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether he is aware that it has been his own practice and that of his predecessors to furnish the latest available figures of the yield of different branches of the revenue at any time during an Autumn Session, and that the yield of Increment Value Duty, Undeveloped Land Duty, and Reversion Duty up to 7th November, 1911, were stated by the Secretary to the Treasury on 14th November last in reply to a question by the hon. Member for the Oswestry Division; and whether he will now state the yield of Increment Value Duty, Undeveloped Land Duty, and Reversion Duty, respectively, for the first six months of the present financial year?
§ Mr. LLOYD GEORGEI must ask the hon, Member to refer to my answers to the hon. and learned Member for St. Pancras and the hon. Member for Bark- 226 ston Ash on the 27th February and 5th March last, respectively, in which the matter is fully explained.
§ Mr. PRETYMANMay I ask whether it has not been the invariable practice to refuse any figures of revenue in the spring before the Budget lest they might anticipate the Budget statement, but when there is an Autumn Session, that it has been the invariable practice to give any figures that have been asked for as to the yield of the revenue?
§ Mr. LLOYD GEORGEThat is not what I am informed by those who are in a better position to form an opinion on the subject.
§ Mr. PRETYMANWill the right hon. Gentleman please answer the question which he has not yet answered in any answer he has given, namely, was not an answer given on this point on 7th November, 1911, as mentioned in my question?
§ Mr. LLOYD GEORGEI beg the hon. Gentleman's pardon, if he had taken the trouble to refer to the question which had been put by the hon. Member for St. Pancras, he would have found that was the exact point there, and on inquiry I reverted to the precedent which up to that had been invariably followed.