asked the Secretary of State for Scotland whether he has issued to assessors any instructions or memorandum with regard to their duties under the Rating and Valuation Act, 1928; and whether he will lay any such instructions upon the Table of the House?

A memorandum explanatory of the Rating and Valuation (Apportionment) Act, 1928, was issued in November, 1928, for the information of assessors in Scotland and was then placed on sale, price, one penny. I am quite prepared to lay it on the Table.

May we take it that the memorandum includes a definition of all the involved points in the Rating and Valuation (Apportionment) Act; and may I ask whether the Lord Advocate is aware that the Secretary of State for Scotland stated last week that many knotty points will have to be dealt with by the assessors subsequently?

The assessors are very skilled persons, and the memorandum contains all the information necessary to help them.

Is it not a fact that they are finding some difficulty even now in connection with one-man businesses, and will not the Secretary of State bring out fresh, more lucid, and fuller information?

I have no information on that point, but I will draw my right hon. Friend's attention to it.