Viscountess ASTORasked the Secretary of State for Scotland if he will give for each county the net return on the capital invested, whether in acquiring land or equipping it, or otherwise, for the purpose of smallholdings under the Acts of 1906, 1919 and 1926, respectively; and for each county the loans still outstanding and their annual loan charges towards repayment under each Act?
Mr. W. ADAMSONThe Department of Agriculture for Scotland is the central authority for Scotland as regards smallholdings, and it is assumed that the transactions referred to in the question are in respect of the sums borrowed by the Department from the Public Works Loan Commissioners under the provisions of the Land Settlement (Scotland) Act, 1919, for the purpose of acquiring and equipping small landholders' holdings—analogous to the borrowings by county councils in England and Wales for similar purposes. The required information for Scotland is not available for individual counties, but the information for the whole country is printed on pages 308 to 311 of the Appropriation Accounts for the year ended 31st March last (H.C. 20, 1931). The net return for the year 1929–30 was £41,919, the amount of the loans outstanding was £1,316,374 and the loan charges representing capital and interest repaid to the Public Works Loan Board during the year were £133,617. Further particulars respecting the expenditure on properties acquired by the Department will he found in the Trading Accounts Volumes—the last of which was for the year 1928–29 (H.C. 51, 1930).