§ SIR ALEXANDER GORDONasked the Lord Advocate, Whether, in view of the probability that the Local Government Board (Scotland) Bill may become an Act of Parliament by the end of next week, and the early appointment thereafter of the first President of the Board under the Act, when all the powers and duties relating to Scotland now vested in, or imposed upon, Her Majesty's three principal Secretaries of State, the Privy Council, and the Local Government Board for England, in connection with the important affairs regulated by the various Acts of Parliament specified in the Schedule of the Bill, will be wholly transferred from those Ministers and Departments to another Minister and to a Department yet to be constituted, he will inform the House what arrangements have been made, or will be made, for the proper conduct and regulation of such Scotch affairs (which will then no longer belong to the Home Office, to the Privy Council Office, or to the Local Government Board for England Office), until the new Department is complete and ready to transact business?
THE LORD ADVOCATE (Mr. J. B. BALFOUR)By Clause 2 of the Bill it is proposed to enact that the Board shall be deemed to be established from and after the date of the first appointment of a President, and no apprehension is entertained that from such appointment business proposed to be assigned to the Board will not be duly transacted. Till the appointment is made, the business will be done by the Departments at present charged with it.