§ MR. ADDISON (Ashton-under-Lyne)I beg to ask the President of the Local Government Board whether any Circular on the subject of repeated prosecutions in cases of a breach of the Vaccination Laws has been issued by the Local Government Board; and, if so, whether he could state to the House the purport of the Circular?
§ *MR. RITCHIEThe Local Government Board, in September, 1875, addressed a letter on the subject of repeated prosecutions in cases of a breach of the Vaccination Laws to the Guardians of the Evesham Union. I have in a large number of cases forwarded a copy of this letter to Boards of Guardians. In that letter the Board stated that it was the intention of the Article in their Regulations with reference to proceedings under Section 31 of the Vaccination Act, 1867, being repeatedly taken in the same case, that the Guardians should carefully consider with regard to each individual case the effect which a continuance of proceedings was likely to have in procuring the vaccination of the child and in insuring the observance of the law in the Union generally. The Board stated that when in a particular case repeated prosecutions had failed in their object, it became necessary carefully to consider the question whether the continuance of a fruitless contest with the parent might not have a tendency to produce mischievous results by exciting sympathy with the person prosecuted, and thus creating a more extended opposition to the law. In this view I entirely concur.
§ MR. ADDISONHas the right hon. Gentleman received any answer from any Board of Guardians promising compliance with this very reasonable request?
§ *MR. RITCHIEIt was not a communication requiring an answer; it was merely an intimation to be received.