§ MR. E. H. PICKERSGILL (Bethnal Green, S. W.)I beg to ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, both as regards the Metropolitan Police District and the rest of the county respectively, how many convicts liberated on licence are under obligation to report themselves, and how many actually report themselves; and, how many persons sentenced to a term of police supervision are now under obligation to report themselves, and how many of them actually report themselves?
§ THE SECRETARY OF STATE FOR THE HOME DEPARTMENT (Sir MATTHEW WHITE RIDLEY, Lancashire, Blackpool)It would take some time to collect the information which the hon. Member asks for. There would be no difficulty I think in giving a return, if the hon. Member moves for it, of the number of persons at large under police supervision, as licence-holders or supervisees, in each police district as on pages 190 to 193 of the criminal statistics for 1893, and the number of those who either are allowed to report themselves by letter 748 or have had the obligation to report remitted. No useful results would, however, be obtained I think by attempting to compile returns of the number of those who report themselves or of those who omit to do so. If a person under police supervision fails to report, his arrest is at once attempted—if he cannot be found, it is impossible of course for the police to say that he is actually in the district and, therefore, to include him in the return.