HC Deb 11 May 1896 vol 40 cc999-1000
MR. LEWIS FRY (Bristol, N.)

I beg to ask the President of the Local Government Board, what provision is made for children remanded by justices to allow of an industrial school being found for them under Section 19 of the Industrial Schools Act, 1866; whether he can state what number of such children come annually into workhouses in the Metropolis under this section; and, whether it is the intention of the Local Government Board to provide a central home for such children, as recommended by the Report of the Poor Law Schools Committee?

MR. T. W. RUSSELL

The provision made for children remanded by justices prior to their being sent to an industrial school varies in different workhouses. I am unable to state what is the number of children of this class that come annually into the workhouses of the Metropolis. As regards the concluding question, the Local Government Board in November last communicated with the Home Secretary, stating that the arrangements as regards children of the class referred to are, in many of the metropolitan workhouses, far from satisfactory. The children are, in fact, prisoners, and there is considerable difficulty in making in each workhouse such separate provision for these children as is desirable. The Board added that they believed that, of the children who are detained in the metropolitan workhouses under remand orders, the great majority are remanded in connection with applications made on behalf of the London School Board for the sending of the children to industrial schools, and that this being the case, it appeared to the Board that it was a question for consideration whether it was not desirable that the law should be amended so as to admit of these children being sent to the truant schools provided by the London School Board as an alternative to the the workhouse. The Board suggested for the consideration of the Secretary of State, that the Committee who were sitting with reference to reformatory and industrial schools might be asked to consider whether the course suggested by the Board might not with advantage be adopted in the case of London. The matter has been referred to that Committee, and is under their consideration.