§ MR. PICTON (Leicester)I beg to ask the Vice President of the Committee of Council on Education, whether he will reconsider the practical difficulty in which the School Board for Leicester is placed, by the impossibility of securing a sufficient number of candidates for the position of pupil teacher who can produce a certificate of vaccination; and whether the Department is compelled by law to make such a certificate a condition of its approval of candidates; if so, by what law; and, if not, whether he will consider the hardship inflicted thus on candidates over 14 years of age who are outside the scope of the Vaccination Laws?
§ *THE VICE PRESIDENT OF THE COUNCIL (Sir W. HART DYKE,) Kent, DartfordI am not aware that there is any difficulty in procuring a certificate of vaccination at Leicester, if the proper medical authority is applied to; and the hon. Member must see that it would be highly inexpedient for the Department to relax a rule of great importance to the health of the children in elementary schools, because of the unfortunate attitude towards compulsory vaccination taken up by the inhabitants of Leicester.
§ In reply to a further question by Mr. PICTON,
§ *SIR W. HART DYKEsaid: The Department is perfectly within its right in demanding a certificate. I cannot otherwise answer the question of the hon. Gentleman than by saying that if a candidate refuses to produce a certificate of vaccination he cannot be appointed.
§ *MR. PICTONIS the Department compelled by law to demand a certificate? [Cries of "Order!"] I think I have a right to ask the question.
§ No reply was given.