asked the Chancellor of the Exchequer whether he will state the total amount paid out in subsidy to the British sugar-beet industry since 1924, together with the total amount of revenue lost to the Exchequer through the remission of excise duty?

The total of the subsidy for the financial years 1924–25 to 1937–38 was £40,958,834. Excise duty is levied on sugar manufactured in this country from home-grown beet, and by remission of excise duty I take the hon. Member to mean the difference between the amount of duty payable and the amount which would have been received had duty been charged on a similar quantity of British refined sugar of foreign origin. This difference amounts for the same period of 14 years to £19,532,000.