§ THE EARL OF MINTOasked Her Majesty's Government, Whether it is their intention to carry out in any, and, if so, in what particulars, the recommendations made in the year 1868 by the Select Committee of this House on 310 the County and Burgh Police Systems of Scotland, with a view to increasing the efficiency of the Scottish Constabulary? To a similar Question last year he received a reply that some of the recommendations were under consideration, and he hoped now to elicit a still more satisfactory and definite answer.
THE EARL OF MORLEYsaid, he regretted that he must give merely the same answer that he gave last year. He must not be thought to undervalue the labours of the Committee if he said that some of their recommendations were not of an urgent or important character, while many were drawn in somewhat qualified, terms. Several of them, however, it was proposed to carry out as soon as possible. With regard to the most important of them—that of superannuation—the whole question was under consideration, and it was obviously desirable that the same principle should, if practicable, be applied both to England and Scotland. As to a Police Gazette, the Government thought it reasonable that such a paper should be established in Scotland, as was already the case in England and Ireland. Many of the other recommendations were in a fair way of being carried out, without the intervention of the Government.