§ Mr. Buchanan-Smithasked the Secretary of State for Scotland if he will give, to the nearest convenient date, the number of claims he has received from eligible agricultural establishments for repayment of the Selective Employment Tax; and how many of these claims have been settled.
§ Mr. RossBy 20th January, 1967, some 9,800 claims for repayment had been re-294W ceived from employers in agriculture, horticulture and forestry in Scotland. None of these claims has yet been settled, but I expect that payments will be made in most cases in the next two or three weeks.
§ Mr. Buchanan-Smithasked the Secretary of State for Scotland how many applications he had received by 31st December, 1966, for registration of agricultural establishments for the purpose of repayment of the Selective Employment Tax; how many had been approved and how many rejected; and if he will give the number of employees involved in each instance.
§ Mr. Ross15,849 applications were made for registration, involving about 60,000 employees in agriculture, horticulture and forestry in Scotland. About 14,000 applications involving 49,000 employees were granted, and 602 applications involving 699 employees were rejected. The remaining applications were still under consideration at the end of the year.