§ Mr. Arthur Lewisasked the Attorney-General whether he will review the present system of his appointment of General Commissioners of the Inland 61W Revenue to ensure that such persons when appointed are themselves not in debt so far as tax payments to the Inland Revenue are concerned, and that all appointed persons should sign a declaration to this effect.
§ Mr. Arthur Lewisasked the Attorney-General whether he will give details of the persons appointed as General Commissioners of Inland Revenue for the longest convenient stated period of time; on what basis he made these appointments; and what qualifications a person has to produce for consideration to be appointed to these situations.
The Solicitor-GeneralThere are 4,700 General Commissioners of Income Tax of whom over 3,000 have been appointed by successive Lord Chancellor's since the Lord Chancellor became responsible for this appointment on 1st January, 1960. Of these 453 were appointed by my noble and learned Friend since 1st January, 1971. To obtain details of all these persons would involve a considerable amount of work and expense which would not in my opinion be justified. The basis upon which the Lord Chancellor makes these appointments and the qualifications, are contained in the answer I gave to the hon. Member on 27th November, 1970. [Vol. 807, c. 228]