HC Deb 15 April 1918 vol 105 cc22-4
41. Colonel LESLIE WILSON

asked the Secretary to the Treasury whether he is aware that tax clerks of ten years' experience and upwards are being called up under the Military Service Acts, whereas assistant surveyors and surveyors of two years' experience and less, who have entered the Department since the outbreak of hostilities, are granted exemption; and, if so, why the Board of Inland Revenue consider the latter indispensable whilst the services of the former, with much greater experience, can be dispensed with?

Mr. BALDWIN (Joint Financial Secretary to the Treasury)

My hon. and gallant Friend is presumably referring to the surveyors and assistant surveyors of taxes recruited in consequence of the increase of staff authorised in 1915 to meet the great expansion of work arising from the financial legislation of the War. More than 50 per cent. of these officers had had previous experience under the Board of Inland Revenue, and they were all selected because their past services, training, and qualifications were such as to enable them to become in the shortest possible time an effective addition to the totally inadequate staff of trained surveyors of taxes. The average age of the staff so recruited was considerably higher than the oldest of the tax clerks who have recently been released. In dealing with the question of what men can be spared for service in the Army the Board of Inland Revenue are necessarily guided by the possibility of replacing them. Substitutes have been found to take the place of the clerks, but none are available with the qualifications necessary to perform the work assigned to surveyors.

Colonel WILSON

Would it not be more equitable, from the point of view of the Service, if the men who joined since the outbreak of hostilities were combed out first before these men who have done ten years' service, and could not these people take the place of the men introduced by the Department since the outbreak of hostilities?

Mr. G. TERRELL

Would not half this staff be dispensed with if the Income Tax law was simplified?

Mr. BALDWIN

That is possible, but as the hon. Member knows there is little prospect of doing that. [An HON. MEMBER: "Why not?"]

Mr. HOGGE

Will my hon. Friend go up to Leith and consult the business men there, and ask them whether they think the men in the Service are indispensable or not? If he does, I think he will soon find that my hon. and gallant Friend is right.

Mr. BALDWIN

I shall be glad to receive any communication on the point from my hon. Friend.