§ MR. PICTON (Leicester)I beg to ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department whether his attention has 1297 been called to the case of William Chittenden, of South Ashford, Kent, who has been summoned 18 times under the Vaccination Acts, and mulcted in fines and costs of about £15 for two children, and has recently been fined 5s. each child, with 18s. 4d. costs; whether, as such repeated prosecutions have been discouraged by the Local Government Board and condemned as at least inexpedient by a unanimous Report of the Royal Commission on Vaccination, he will advise the remission of the penalty in this and similar cases; and whether he will at once introduce the Bill of which he has given notice to amend the law?
§ MR. ASQUITHBetween 1886 and the present date Chittenden has been fined 11 times for his refusal to have his two children vaccinated, and the total amount of the fines and costs for which he has so become liable has been nearly £15. I regret these repeated prosecutions for the same offence, but I should be repealing the law if I were to remit the penalty. I shall introduce the Bill of which I have given notice as soon as I am able.