§ MR. J. HOLMSasked the President of the Local Government Board, If any effort has been made to give effect to the recommendation of the Select Committee on the mode of purchasing for Public Departments, contained in paragraphs 128 and 129 of their Report (July 1874), and which suggested that an inquiry should be made into the mode of purchasing supplies for workhouses in the provinces, and that the Local Government Board should endeavour to give effect to the recommendations contained in the Report upon the modes of purchasing stores for the workhouses of the metropolis?
§ MR. SCLATER - BOOTH,in reply, said, that extracts from Mr. Rowsell's Report on this subject, which formed the foundation of the Report of the Select Committee, had been sent to all the Boards of Guardians in the Metropolis, and afterwards, when the Report came out as a public document, the attention of those Bodies was directed to it by means of the Inspectors. It was not thought necessary to make inquiries concerning the mode of purchasing supplies in country workhouses, because that was already known to the Local Government Board. The proposals of Mr. Rowsell, however, would have caused more interference with matters usually left to the Guardians than the Local Government Board were prepared to undertake; and accordingly they did not see fit to act on the recommendation in the Report; but they had under consideration the desirability of issuing a new General Order by means of which they would be able to introduce some improvement in the direction suggested by the Select Committee.