§ 61. Mr. GRAHAM WHITEasked the Home Secretary whether he is aware that licensing justices and others have complained of the inconvenience and lack of guidance they now suffer through insufficiency of the information contained in the annual licensing statistics; and whether he can give instructions for the reinsertion in the annual returns, particularly, of the information which always appeared prior to 1932 in Table IV(A) concerning the conditions in respect of monopoly value, and so on, under which licences are granted, and also the description of the licence as to its partial or annual currency?
§ Mr. LLOYDVery few complaints have been addressed to my Department in regard to the abridgement of these statistics, and no such representations as suggested in the question have been received from licensing benches. As my right hon. Friend stated in answer to a question by the hon. Member for Gower (Mr. Grenfell) on 27th February last, it is thought that the statistics in their abridged form retain all the information which is of general interest and importance; but in view of the hon. Member's representations I will consider whether there is any further detail which can usefully be included in Table IV(A).
§ 60. Mr. CECIL WILSON forasked the Home Secretary when the annual licensing statistics for 1764 1935 will be published; and what is the cause of delay in publication?
§ Mr. LLOYDThere will be no avoidable delay in the publication of these statistics, but I am not in a position at the moment to specify a definite date. The hon. Member will appreciate that the preparation of the material involves both time and trouble, and that the staff engaged on the work have many other important duties to perform.