§ MR. HOPWOOD (Lancashire, S.E., Middleton)I beg to ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department whether he is aware that one J. S. Fry, then residing in the King's Norton Union, was summoned by the vaccination officer of the Birmingham Union to appear before the Court of Summary Jurisdiction in Birmingham on 22nd September, 1893, and there fined under Section 29 of the Vaccination Act of 1867; whether the vaccination officer was authorised by anything in the Vaccination Acts in applying for a summons against a parent with a child living in another Union; and whether, when applying for the summons, he informed the Stipendiary that Fry and his child were not resident in the Birmingham Union?
§ MR. ASQUITHThe facts are as stated in the first paragraph of the question. As regards the second and third paragraphs, I am informed that the vaccination officer of the Birmingham Union, in which the defendant's child was born, and where he still has a shop, served the notices on the defendant personally at his shop; that the defendant did not take the objection now raised at the hearing. So far as I can see, no illegality was committed by the vaccination officer, as it is open to anyone to prosecute under Section 29, but I am afraid I cannot give legal advice on points such as this.