HC Deb 11 May 1857 vol 145 cc105-6
MR. BOWYER

wished to ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department whether Her Majesty's Government meant to take measures for the enforcement of the law requiring the owners of manufactories in London to consume their own smoke?

SIR GEORGE GREY

said, that during the last six months there had been fifty-four convictions in London for violations of the Act to which the hon. and learned Gentleman referred. But these convictions by no means represented the whole of the steps taken by the authorities for the enforcement of the law, because, when the police found that parties were disposed to make the alterations which the Act required, they abstained from taking further measures, and only those cases were prosecuted where the parties, after representation, refused to comply with the provi- sions of the Act; so that much more was done in the way of enforcing the law than appeared from the number of convictions.