§ Sir J. HOODasked the Chancellor of the Exchequer whether the practice of the Board of Inland Revenue of not holding the registering officer of a limited company responsible under Section 17 of the Stamp Act, 1891, if he accepts for registration without question the sufficiency of the stamp thereon a transfer bearing a certificate by a marking officer of the Board of Inland Revenue that the transfer is passed for stamping with the 10s. nominal consideration duty stamp, applies to a case where a registering officer accepts a transfer bearing such a certificate signed by a marking officer of the Board of Inland Revenue of the Irish Free State; and, if not, to remove any doubts or difficulties, whether, in such cases, he will issue instructions either that a transfer certified by a marking officer of the Board of Inland Revenue of the Irish Free State may be accepted by the registering officer of a company in the same manner as he would accept a certificate of a marking officer of the Board of Inland Revenue, or that such transfers are not to be accepted unless certified by the marking officer of the Board of Inland Revenue or adjudicated?
§ Mr. SNOWDENThe answer to the first part of the question is in the negative. As regards the second part, there are many cases in which registering officers are quite competent to decide whether a transfer is sufficiently stamped with 10s., and it would therefore be unnecessary to require all transfers to be certified by a marking officer of the Board of Inland Revenue or adjudicated. It is, of course, always open to a registering officer to require adjudication in any case where he has any reason to doubt the sufficiency of the stamp.