MR. JAMESasked the President of the Local Government Board, If his attention has been drawn to the proceedings in the case of Elizabeth Ingram, as reported in "The Times" of the 1st of March; and, if it is his intention, in view of the circumstances the trial brought to light, to introduce any measure placing all persons practising in midwifery under more immediate supervision than at present, and giving power to the local authority, on the report of a coroner, or other due cause shown, to suspend them from the exercise of their practice?
§ MR. SCLATER-BOOTHSir, my attention has not been directed to this case, otherwise than by the reports in the newspapers. It would appear that the prisoner alluded to by the hon. Gentleman was acquitted on the score of ignorance; so that if she had known the danger involved in her attendance, it is possible that she might have been liable to punishment. The whole subject of the registration of midwives, and the possibility of putting in force some such powers as those suggested by the hon. Gentleman, have been frequently under the consideration of the Local Government Board, and only quite recently it has formed the subject of a correspondence between myself and the Home Secretary. Oases of a similar nature to that which is referred to have occurred 1285 at Leicester and Wolverhampton; and in one case the person who was supposed to have communicated the fever was a medical practitioner, and in the other a midwife. The question is a difficult one, and is now under the consideration of the Government, and the hon. Gentleman may rest assurred we will not lose sight of it.