65. Mr. De la Bèreasked the Financial Secretary to the Treasury whether, in connection with the unclaimed bank balances, he can give some figure as to the approximate amount in the aggregate of these in February, 1940?
§ Captain CrookshankThe Select Committee on the Dormant Bank Balances and Unclaimed Securities Bill, 1919, reported that the balances in all the banks standing in the name of persons who could not be traced amounted to less than £3,000,000. As balances of this type accumulate very slowly, there is no reason to suppose that the total amount to-day can be of a different order of magnitude.
Mr. De la BèreWill my right hon. and gallant Friend be kind enough to make further inquiries with a view to giving a more approximate and more up-to-date figure than a figure 20 years old?
§ Captain CrookshankMy answer shows what the kind of size of these balances is, and really there are more important things to be done to-day.
§ Mr. StokesDoes the Financial Secretary mean by identification that if he could identify a dead man, the balance would be regarded as identifiable?