§ MR. FISHER (Fulham)asked the Secretary of State for the Home Department, Whether he can now say when the establishment of a whole day Court for the Hammersmith Police District, in accordance with the promise given by him, will be carried into effect; whether, when that change takes place, it is intended to enlarge and improve the Police Court of the District; and, whether, unless such alterations are to be speedily undertaken, he will at once take steps to better the unsanitary and indecent accommodation provided for prisoners awaiting trial who are at present huddled together for several hours without distinction of age or sex, sometimes to the number of 20 and more, in a strong room 14 feet seven inches by nine feet seven inches?
MAJOR GENERAL GOLDS WORTHY (Hammersmith)also asked the right hon. Gentleman, Whether the Hammersmith Police Court will be a whole day Court before the winter commences, as great hardship is inflicted by the present arrangement; whether his attention has been called to the insufficiency of the buildings at this Police Court, and the desirability of increasing the accommodation both for tried and untried prisoners, and of at once re-arranging the sanitary arrangements with a greater regard to public decency; whether, as the so-called Hammersmith Police Court is situated in Fulham, and that prisoners from a very large area outside of Hammersmith are tried at the Court, he will consider the desirability of altering the name of the Court to that of "The West London Police Court," or some similar designation; and, whether he will arrange that in all cases at the various Police Courts of the Metropolis male and female untried prisoners may have separate waiting and retiring rooms, and that, as far as possible, innocent and respectable people may not unnecessarily be brought in contact with the hardened and abandoned criminal?
§ THE SECRETARY OF STATE (Mr. MATTHEWS) (Birmingham, E.)In January, 1887,1 addressed the Treasury, urging that the establishment of a whole day Court for Hammersmith had become necessary. The Treasury, in reply, properly urged that this result should be 378 attained, if possible, without increased expense by the re-modelling of the existing Court districts or re-distribution of the existing magisterial staff. Thereupon, on February 21, I appointed a Departmental Committee to look into this subject. Their Report will be presented in a few days, and thereupon immediate action will be taken, as soon as Treasury sanction can be obtained and the necessary sums have been voted by Parliament. The buildings of the Police Courts are in charge of the Office of Works; and I will confer with that Department as to any alterations necessitated by making Hammersmith a whole day Court, and as to immediate steps to remedy the state of things which is described in the Questions. I may say that the whole question of the accommodation for prisoners awaiting trial at the various London Police Courts, including, of course, Hammersmith, has been since June the subject of a special inquiry conducted at my instance by Sir Edmund Du Cane. I will consider whether a change in the title of the Court now called the Hammersmith. Police Court will be necessary.