HC Deb 05 June 1888 vol 326 c1165
MR. J. W. BARCLAY (Forfarshire)

asked the Lord Advocate, Whether District Boards of Lunacy who have, under the Lunacy Act, contracted with chartered asylums for the maintenance of pauper lunatics, are entitled, under reasonable regulations, to visit such lunatics?

THE LORD ADVOCATE (Mr. J. H. A. MACDONALD) (Edinburgh and St. Andrew's Universities)

I am not aware of any statutory right under which District Boards of Lunacy are entitled to visit lunatics for whom they pay in chartered asylums. They have a power under the Act of 1857 to appoint medical men as District Inspectors to visit such lunatics. I am informed that there is only one case in which any question has arisen ont his subject—namely, in Forfarshire; and in this case, though the Directors of the asylum declined to allow visitation as a matter of right, they stated that, as a matter of courtesy, they would welcome a visit from the District Board at any time.