§ 8. Mr. SMITHERSasked the President of the Board of Trade what was the 1851 annual cost for the past five years of the office of registration of business names; has he experienced any difficulty in obtaining the required information; have any legal proceedings been instituted; if so, how many, and with what results, for non-compliance; and approximately what percentage of business firms who come within the scope of the 1916 Act has in fact registered?
§ Sir P. CUNLIFFE-LISTERThe answer is long and contains some tables of figures. I would accordingly propose, with the permission of my hon. Friend, to circulate it in the OFFICIAL REPORT.
| Year ended. | Cost. | Fees. | ||||||
| England. | Scotland. | England. | Scotland. | |||||
| £ | £ | £ | £ | |||||
| 31st March, 1923 | … | … | … | … | 7,100 | 300 | 6,210 | 412 |
| 31st March, 1924 | … | … | … | … | 5,445 | 300 | 5,550 | 411 |
| 31st March, 1925 | … | … | … | … | 5,260 | 300 | 5,505 | 477 |
| 31st March, 1926 | … | … | … | … | 4,000 | 300 | 5,610 | 451 |
| 31st March, 1927 | … | … | … | … | 3,800 | 300 | 5,620 | 402 |
§ As regards the second part, no difficulty has in general been experienced in obtaining information from persons who to the knowledge of the Registry are required to give information.
| Year. | No. of Cases. | Convicted. | Dismissed. | Withdrawn or not served. | Bound over. | ||
| 1922 | … | … | 7 | 4 | — | 1 | |
| 1923 | … | … | 10 | 8 | — | 2 | — |
| 1924 | … | … | 17 | 15 | — | 2 | — |
| 1925 | … | … | 36 | 30 | 4 | 2 | — |
| 1926 | … | … | 26 | 23 | 3 | — | — |
§ In Scotland proceedings have been instituted in seven cases during the past five years and convictions obtained on each occasion. These figures do not include proceedings instituted by police or members of the public.
§ No data exist on which the estimate asked for in the last part of the question can be framed.