§ MR. H. LABOUCHERE (Northampton)I beg to ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department whether he is aware that John Scott, an inmate of the Strand Union, Edmonton, fell or threw himself over a handrail on some stairs in the Union on 3rd February, and alighted on the stone pavement below; that the doctor only appears to have visited him some hours after the occurrence; that he died the next morning, and that no inquest took place on the body of the unfortunate man; and whether he will order an inquest to be held?
§ MR. SHAW-LEFEVREI will answer the question. The Local Government Board have communicated with the Guardians as to this case, and one of the inspectors of the Board has visited the Workhouse and made inquiries with regard to it. I am informed that no inquest took place because the Medical Officer, who seems to have been under some misapprehension as to the nature of the fall, and to have regarded it as the result of commencing effusion on the brain, considered it unnecessary. The Guardians have held an inquiry into the case, and have informed the Medical Officer that he would have displayed a better judgment had he communicated the facts to the Coroner. In this view I concur, but as the case has been fully investigated by the Medical Inspector of the Local Government Board and by the Guardians, it does not appear to be requisite that an inquest should now be held with respect to it.