§ COLONEL HUGHES (Woolwich)I beg to ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department whether the Government is exempt from any liability under the existing Acts of Parliament to compensate workmen for injury caused to them in their employment; and, if so, whether the Government will be prepared to waive their present discretion to compensate, or not to compensate, as they deem fit, and to place themselves in this respect in the same position as other employers of labour under the Bill now before the House?
§ THE SECRETARY OF STATE FOR THE HOME DEPARTMENT (Mr. ASQUITH,) Fife, E.The answer to the first question is in the affirmative. As to the second question, the Crown cannot be sued, as other employers can, by third persons for injuries caused by the negligence of its workmen. The principle of the Bill is to place workmen, in this respect, in the same position as third persons. The Government have received, so far as I am aware, no representations from their workmen asking for a change of the law. Under the circumstances, as at present advised, I am not prepared to propose that the law shall be altered in the manner suggested.