§ SIR ROPER LETHBRIDGEI beg to ask the Vice President of the Committee of Council on Education whether he is aware that on 1st December a portion of the ceiling of one of the rooms of the Latimer Road Board School fell down suddenly, injuring some of the children; whether further examination has shown other portions of the building to be dangerous to the lives of the poor children compelled to attend there; whether the Education Department will, in consultation with the London School Board, take steps to fix the responsibility for such dangerous condition of school buildings on someone; and what steps, if any, are being taken to protect the lives of the Board school children from such dangers in the future?
§ THE VICE PRESIDENT OF THE COUNCIL (Sir W. HART DYKE, Kent, Dartford)The Department have no official information on the subject, though I believe the facts are as stated in the first part of the question. The duty of the Department is limited to ascertaining whether the school is in proper repair before the annual grant is 700 made to it, but the responsibility for its actual condition rests entirely with the London School Board.