§ Lieut.-Colonel HENEAGEasked the Financial Secretary to the Treasury whether an investigation has been made into the subject of substitutes for ethyl alcohol; and, if so, whether he is in a position to state the results?
§ Mr. McNEILLYes, Sir. My right hon. Friend arranged for an investigation into this subject by the Departments concerned, and, as a result, the following conclusions have been reached:
1. Purified methyl alcohol will remain within the scope of the Spirit Duty. But no duty will be payable so far as it is used for industrial purposes, and the official supervision of manufacture and duty-free use will be reduced to the minimum consistent with the safety of the Revenue. Moreover, provision has been made in Clause 14 (1) of the Finance Bill for the extension to methyl alcohol of an appropriate Excise allowance on the lines of that now payable on ethyl alcohol manufactured in this country and used duty-free for industrial purposes, in order to compensate for the
1400WI would invite my hon. Friend's attention to the detailed particulars of staff costs in 1914 contained in the Report of the Committee on the Pity, etc., of State Servants, under the Chairmanship of Sir Alan Anderson, K.B.E., issued in 1923.