§ Captain GANZONIasked the President of the Board of Trade how many officers and servants there are in the Petrol Control Department; what was the total amount of their salaries; and what were the total receipts from petrol licences during the year 1918?
§ Mr. BRIDGEMANThe number of persons at present employed by the Petrol Control Department is 438, including messengers and charwomen. The total amount of salaries and wages paid during the year 1918 was £39,620. This figure does not include the cost of ten Civil servants lent by other Departments, whose salaries total about £4,000 per annum. The total receipts from Motor Spirit Licence Duty during the year 1918 were £278,091. I may add that until the beginning of the present year the principal function of the Department was to control the consumption of petrol, but now that it exists only for the purpose of collecting the Licence Duty, its procedure has been simplified, and it is anticipated that the cost of the Department will now decrease while the revenue collected will increase.