§ Mr. Wrigglesworthasked the Chancellor of the Exchequer (1) if he will give an estimate of the losses to Great Britain's foreign currency assets arising from known violations of exchange control regulations in each of the last five years;
(2) what is the estimated loss to Great Britain's foreign currency assets from all violations of exchange control reglations in each of the last five years.
§ Mr. Robert Sheldon, pursuant to his reply [Official Report, 6th May 1976; Vol. 910, c. 470.], gave the following information:
No regular tally has been kept of losses from known violations, which may often be hard to establish precisely or to attribute to a particular year. But in round terms such losses are unlikely, since the Scheduled Territories were greatly narrowed in June 1972, to have exceeded £25 million in total.
§ Mr. Wrigglesworthasked the Chancellor of the Exchequer what is the number of investigations into exchange control violations at present being carried out by his department or the Bank of England.
§ Mr. Robert Sheldon, pursuant to his reply [Official Report, 6th May 1976; Vol. 910, c. 471], gave the following information
There are about 230 cases of suspected exchange control offences currently in hand, compared with about 180 at this time of year in 1974 and 1975. Experience shows that many of these will be disposed of quickly and easily, because either no offence is revealed or the 130W offence is one of a minor nature. A few of the investigations are likely to prove lengthy and difficult; and the work on them largely accounts for the current increase in cases outstanding.