§ 31. Mr. Fletcher-Cookeasked the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he will instruct the Board of Inland Revenue to keep their provincial offices open until seven p.m. on one night in the week.
§ Mr. MacDermotNo, Sir; but interviews can be arranged by appointment outside the hours when offices are open to the public.
§ Mr. Fletcher-CookeIs not the hon. and learned Gentleman aware that, now that the Inland Revenue shuts on Saturday mornings, quite rightly, workers can no 208 longer discuss their tax affairs, because on other days the Inland Revenue offices shut at 4 o'clock? Should not the Revenue adopt one of the practices of the private service trading industries in the distributive trade and remain open one night a week for this important function?
§ Mr. MacDermotNo. It would be uneconomical and wasteful of manpower to make an arrangement of that kind. The present practice, as I have explained, is that appointments can be fixed outside normal hours where this is required. This is more economic and it appears to work to the taxpayers' convenience.