§ Mr. HOGGEasked the Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Munitions whether, in view of the. fact that the legal advisers to the Crown having advised that expenditure on jigs and tools and fixtures should not be regarded as capital expenditure and as such should not be admissible as production expenses, he will explain that notwithstanding this decision he informed the House that payments are being made to contractors on account of jigs and tools as establishment or overhead charges; and whether he will state the total amount paid to contractors on account of jigs and tools prior to the legal ruling given, and why such payments were ever made at all before seeking the legal opinion that was eventually taken and which proved to be adverse to such payments being made?
Mr. HOPEThe hon. Gentleman is under a misapprehension as to the pre-misses on which this question is based, inasmuch as the Law Officers of the Crown advised in the contrary sense to that suggested.