§ Mr. Rookerasked the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he will publish a breakdown of his Budget estimate of 845,000 taken out of tax as between earning wives and others.
Number of prosecutions Number of convictions Fines and costs imposed £ Year ending— 31st March 1975 … … … … 334 334 77,608 31st March 1976 … … … … 1,471 1,470 391,001 31st March 1977 … … … … 4,104 4,099 778,174 Records are not kept in such a way that costs can be separated from fines.
No record is kept of the maximum amounts of fines which might have been imposed and the information could only be obtained at the cost of disproportionate time and effort. Undoubtedly, however, the maximum amounts would have been substantially higher than the figures shown above.