§ 49. Mr. HANNONasked the Financial Secretary to the Treasury what is the number of rooms occupied by the Land Valuation Office; the number of caretakers and cleaners employed for these rooms; and the average annual cost per room of cleaning and caretaking?
§ Sir W. JOYNSON-HICKSI regret that the information for which my hon. Friend asks is not available and could not be obtained without a disproportionate expenditure of time and labour.
§ Mr. HANNONIs it a fact that the cleaning and caretaking of this office costs the taxpayer over £5,000 a year?
§ Sir W. JOYNSON-HICKSI do not think I could differentiate the cost as between this and other offices, but I have one figure from which my hon. Friend might be able to work it out. The average cost of cleaning each 300 square feet of the rooms occupied by the Land Valuation Department is about £9 4s. 3d.
Mr. T. THOMSONArising out of the original reply, and in view of the figure given in reply to the question which I put earlier, is it not the fact that the net income from this Department is greater than the net cost?
§ 50. Mr. HANNONasked the Financial Secretary to the Treasury the proportion of the value of services rendered to other Departments by the Department of Inland Revenue which is performed by the Land Valuation Office?
§ Sir W. JOYNSON-HICKSThe estimated cost of the services rendered by the Inland Revenue Valuation Office to other Government Departments for the current financial year is £173,300.
§ Mr. HANNONIs it not the fact that the main function of the Land Valuation Department during the past financial year was to render services to other Departments?
§ Sir W. JOYNSON-HICKSI expect I shall be making a statement in the course of the Debate this afternoon on the services of the Land Valuation Department. It would be much too long to give 250 it by way of a reply to questions, and perhaps the hon. Member would await it.