§ SIR MASSEY LOPESasked the President of the Local Government Board, Whether he has completed the digest or code of existing Sanitary Laws for the use of the Local Authorities which he referred to as being in progress two months since; and, if so, whether he would give Members of this House the benefit of the information which it contains by laying such digest upon the Table of the House previous to going into Committee on the Public Health Bill?
§ MR. STANSFELD, in reply, said, the digest to which the hon. Member referred, and which was in course of preparation, was in the nature of a popular digest, and the hon. Gentleman might remember he called it a vade mecum of sanitary law. The object which he had in 1689 view was, that when the Public Health Bill became law the local sanitary authorities and their officers might have in their possession in an easy, intelligible, and popular form some kind of digest of existing sanitary Acts as affected by the Public Health Act. He had never, therefore, contemplated completing that digest until the Public Health Bill should have passed both Houses of Parliament. With regard to the second Question, no more complete digest of existing sanitary laws could be had than that contained in the Report of the Commissioners, which had been laid on the Table of the House.
§ SIR MASSEY LOPESsaid, the Report contained 167 pages of printed matter, and therefore could not be said to afford the precise digest which would be useful to hon. Members.