§ Mr. Concannonasked the Chancellor of the Exchequer how many times in each of the past five years Section 15 of the Stamp Act 1891 has been invoked; and what has been the total amount of penalty in each year.
§ Mr. NottPrecise information about the application of Section 15 is not available. Records are kept of the total number of cases in which liability to a penalty arises in respect of stamp duty—mostly under Section 15—but penalties have not been exacted in all of them. The total penalties paid in any one year—again mostly under Section 15—are published in the Annual Report of the Commissioners of Inland Revenue. These figures for Great Britain for the last five years are:
Number of cases (thousands) Penalties (£ thousand) Year to 31st March 1968 … 26.0 42 Year to 31st March 1969 … 28.7 48 Year to 31st March 1970 … 27.8 68 Year to 31st March 1971 … 32.7 61 Year to 31st March 1972 … 31.9 72
§ Mr. Concannonasked the Chancellor of the Exchequer how many times Section 15 of the Stamp Act 1891 has been used against local authorities in default.