MR. PTCKERSGILL (Bethnal Green, S. W.)I beg to ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department whether his attention has been drawn to the failure in many cases to comply with 336 the provisions of the 5th section of "The Prosecution of Offences Act, 1879," which direct the clerks to Justices, &c., to transmit to the Director of Public-Prosecutions a copy of all depositions and other documents relating to any prosecution withdrawn or not proceeded with within a reasonable time; will he state the average number of cases during the last five years in relation to which depositions and documents have been transmitted to the Director of Public Prosecutions in accordance with the above provision, and also the number of cases in which the Director of Public Prosecutions has taken action thereon; and is there any instance of a clerk to a Justice or to a Police Court having been proceeded against according: to law for failure to comply with the foregoing enactment?
§ MR. MATTHEWSNo, Sir; my attention has not been called to any failure in this respect. The duties of the Local Authority and of the Director of Public Prosecutions respectively are laid down in the Regulations framed in pursuance of the Acts of 1879 and 1884, and approved by Parliament. Between August, 1884, and the 1st of March, 1890, the number of cases which were withdrawn or not proceeded with, and in which information was sent to the Director, is 206. Of these, nine were taken up by the Director. The Director informs me that be is not aware of any such proceedings having been taken as are referred to in the last paragraph.