HC Deb 19 October 1943 vol 392 cc1212-3
56. Sir A. Southby

asked the Chancellor of the Exchequer whether he has any further statement to make regarding the appoinment of a committee to advise on the exemption of plays from Entertainments Duty under the provisions of Section 1 (5) (d) of the Finance (New Duties) Act, 1916?

The Chancellor of the Exchequer (Sir John Anderson)

Yes, Sir. Sir Ernest Pooley, Sir Gerald Canny and Dr. T. H. W. Armstrong have been appointed as an advisory committee to assist the Commissioners of Customs and Excise in the task laid upon them of deciding what entertainments should be regarded as partly educational within the meaning of the Section to which the hon. Member refers. Directions have also been given that the Commissioners of Customs and Excise should take special care to satisfy themselves that any organisation claiming exemption from duty under this Section is of a kind genuinely entitled to the benefit of its provisions. This will involve more detailed inquiry than in the past into the financial arrangements of bodies claiming exemption and into the disposal of the proceeds from exempted entertainments.