§ Mr. HARMOOD-BANNERasked the Chancellor of the Exchequer whether the assurance given to the House by the Chancellor of the Exchequer in 1907 that the local authorities will not suffer one halfpenny financially by the operation of Section 17 of the Finance Act, 1907, and that the local authorities will share in the natural growth, and receive precisely the same sum in any year as if the (then) present state of things continued, is to be observed in administering the provisions of the Finance (1909–10) Bill, 1910, relating to Motor Car Licence Duties; and whether these provisions will enable the local authorities to share in the natural increase, having regard to the limitation of the amount to be paid in future to the local authorities which is contained in Clause 88 (1) of that Bill?
§ Mr. LLOYD GEORGEThe assurance given by my right hon. Friend the Prime Minister when Chancellor of the Exchequer in connection with the Clause of the Finance Bill, 1907, which ultimately became Section 17 of the Act of that year, was duly given effect to by the terms of that Section as finally enacted. It in no way purported to bind—nor could it bind—Parliament as regards future legislation. As regards the provisions of the present Bill, it should be observed that, while Clause 88 deprives local authorities of any advantage which under the existing law they would derive from the future "natural increase" in the number of motor cars, it also protects them from the loss which under the existing law they600W would undoubtedly sustain from the "natural decrease" in the number of licences for the sale of intoxicating liquor, which has been going on continuously for some years past as a result of the provisions of the Licensing Act, 1904, and other causes.