§ 53. Mr. NORTHasked the Financial Secretary to the Treasury in how many cases during each of the past eight years the estates of intestates dying in England and Wales have passed to the Crown on 343 the grounds that relatives more remote than first cousins are now excluded from the distribution of intestates' estates under the Administration of Estates Act, 1925; and what has been the aggregate amount so received in each of these years?
§ Mr. HORE-BELISHAI regret that the information desired is not available. My hon. Friend will appreciate that the absence of a claim does not necessarily denote the non-existence of relatives remoter than first cousins. I have no grounds for believing, however, that the cases in question are numerous or involve a substantial amount in the aggregate.