§ MR. E. H. PICKERSGILL (Bethnal Green, S.W.)I beg to ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department whether there are any instructions to the Metropolitan Police prescribing their relations with the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children; how many cases were last year discovered by the Metropolitan Police and transferred by them to this Society for prosecution; and is there any other Society, and, if so, what, with which the Metropolitan Police have similar relations?
§ SIR MATTHEW WHITE RIDLEYYes, Sir, there are such instructions, and under them the Police notify to the Society particulars of all cases of cruelty to children which come to their notice. Five hundred and thirty-one such cases came to the notice of the Police during 1896, 182 of which were transferred to the Society for prosecution. There is no other society with which the police have similar relations.