§ 35. Mr. Holtasked the Chancellor of of the Exchequer the usual length of time required to clear parcels, which have been sent by air from Europe, through the Customs at London Airport.
Mr. AmoryProperly documented parcels are normally cleared by the Customs within 24 hours. If the hon. Member has any particular case in mind, I shall be glad to investigate it if he will let me have details.
§ Mr. HoltIs the Chancellor aware that that Answer is rather surprising, as I hear many complaints about delay? I know of a case, of which I will send him details, in which a parcel urgently required for a textile machine, part of which came from Germany, appears to have lain in the Customs, despite repeated requests for it, for some eleven days.
Mr. AmoryI should be glad to receive details of such a case. I remind the hon. Member, however, that it is unsafe to assume that the responsibility for such delays is necessarily always that of the Customs. It may arise from other causes, but I will certainly look into the case he mentioned.
§ Mr. SnowWhen the Chancellor says "properly documented", would he cause inquiries to be made as to whether these documents are as simple as they might be? Some are extremely complicated and, in many instances, not really applicable to relatively small importations.
Mr. AmoryI will look into that. We want these documents to be as simple as possible. When I was in business I looked at shipping documents and they seemed to me to be tremendously complicated, but I was assured that it was essential that this should be so. Naturally, we want these things to be as simple as possible.