§ MR. BEITH (Inverness)I beg to ask the Secretary for Scotland if he has received recently a communication from the Town Clerk of Inverness protesting against the ineptitude of the Board of Supervision for the relief of the poor in Scotland, in regard to the administration of the laws relating to public health; if he is aware that, beyond issuing an occasional Circular as to a possible epidemic of cholera, no practical measures have been taken by the Board of Supervision in Edinburgh to anticipate this evil; if he will favourably consider the various suggestions made in the communication from Inverness; and, in particular, that questions relating to public health be removed from the control of the Board of Supervision and be placed under a Department created 1269 for the purpose; and if he will, without delay, take practical steps to secure that Local Authorities (urban and rural) in Scotland be urged and required to exercise their powers for enforcing sanitary improvements in view of possible conditions which every day become more probable?
§ THE SECRETARY FOR SCOTLAND (Sir G. TREVELYAN,) Glasgow, BridgetonI have received and considered the communication from the Town Clerk of Inverness referred to by the hon. Member. The Board of Supervision are in frequent correspondence with Local Authorities as to sanitation and water supply, and their officers communicate with the local officials when visiting their districts, and report to the Board. The Scottish ports have all been inspected and reported on, many of them repeatedly, by the Board's inspecting officers; every port is now believed to be provided with the means of isolating cases of cholera; the attention of all Local Authorities has been called by special letters, as above described, to the weak points noted in the Annual Reports of the local sanitary officers, and the replies show that these points are receiving earnest consideration; every sanitary medical officer in Scotland has been required to report specially whether, in his opinion, the preparations in his district are adequate to meet the threatened epidemic, and when any doubt was expressed strong pressure was applied to the Local Authorities. The Board of Supervision is careful to make known to all Port Local Authorities the existence of disease in Continental ports. In the face of these facts, I do not consider that the allegations made by the Town Clerk of Inverness regarding the action of the Board are accurate. As I have already stated in this House, I am prepared at the earliest opportunity to take up the question of the re-organisation of the Board with a view, amongst others, of placing matters relating to public health on the most satisfactory basis.
§ MR. BEITHIs the right hon. Gentleman aware that the Sanitary Congress at Ayr the other day expressed a strong opinion against the "antiquated and useless Board of Supervision," and favoured the creation of a Central Board of Health for Scotland? Is it not the universal opinion 1270 in Scotland that the Board of Supervision is fitted only for the administration of the Poor Law, and is not an Organisation calculated to effectively administer the duties of a Public Health Board?
§ SIR G. TREVELYANIn the discussion that took place on the Estimates I expressed an opinion that while the Board of Supervision did its utmost in these matters, it was not a satisfactory Organisation for purposes connected with the public health.