I must, first, express my thanks, and those of the War Damage Commission, for the way in which the Bill has been received, and for the extremely well-earned and agreeable phrases used about the work of the Commission.

When the right hon. and learned Member for Newport (Sir F. Soskice) asked how many claims remained outstanding he was good enough to say that if I could not answer him he could understand why. However, I understand that the total number of claims outstanding is about 4,500. What I cannot do is to relate, so to speak, the size to the claims. I can do that in one case, which I shall use later to illustrate another point.

The right hon. and learned Gentleman also asked whether the Inland Revenue Department will have adequate staff and, with his usual perspicacity, was able almost to answer his own question. The Inland Revenue will have adequate staff because it will take on the necessary numbers from the Commission itself. It will continue to have what it most certainly needs—and needs, perhaps, more now in the closing stage than at the opening—an I that is really expert guidance, so that good and proper distinction can be made between what is due to old age and what is traceable to war damage. That distinction gets progressively more difficult to make, and is one of the most substantial reasons for this Bill. It will continue to have precisely the same form of expert advice that the Commission has received up to date. I believe that this is a perfectly satisfactory and good arrangement.

The right hon. and learned Gentleman drew attention, quite correctly, to the difference between the remaining claims on houses and the remaining claims on commercial premises. There is a very good reason for this. A good many of the commercial premises, for example, were public houses. It by no means follows that it is desirable that a badly damaged public house should be rebuilt. Some other decision may ultimately be taken about its fate. This is really the reason why those claims hung fire longer than the claims on houses. Much the same consideration goes to claims lodged on behalf of public authorities.