§ MR. FAWCETTasked the Secretary of State for the Home Department, If he will consent to the appointment of a Select Committee to inquire whether the Water Supply of London should continue to be in the hands of private Companies; and, if not, to what public body it should be entrusted, and on what terms the rights of the existing private Companies should be acquired?
§ MR. SCLATER-BOOTHI have been asked by my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for the Home Department to answer the Question of the hon. Member for Hackney. The present Metropolis Water Act was submitted to a careful inquiry by a Select Committee not many years since, and the subject, in connection with the extinction of fires in the Metropolis, passed under notice of another Select Committee last year. Under these circumstances, and in the absence 1286 of any case brought forward to justify such a proceeding, the Government, as at present advised, are not prepared to consent to the appointment of a Select Committee to inquire whether the water supply of London should continue to be in the hands of private Companies. With regard to the second part of the Question, to what public body it should be intrusted, and on what terms the rights of the existing private Companies should be acquired, he had to say that there were ample materials at the disposal of the Government to form an opinion when the time arrived for proposing legislation upon it.