§ MR. PICKERSGILLI beg to ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department whether he is aware that, at the Derby Hunt Steeplechases held at Derby on Tuesday last, betting was carried on in Tattersall's Ring by bookmakers in the manner recently decided by the Queen's Bench Division to be unlawful, and that, although the police were present in force, they did not interfere; and whether, in virtue of the powers conferred upon him by No. 1 of the Regulations made under the authority of the Prosecution of Offences Acts, 1879 and 1884, he will order the Director of Public Prosecutions to institute criminal proceedings where evidence is available in cases in which the law appears to have been broken?
The HON. MEMBERfurther asked the Secretary of State for the Home. Department whether, with a view to secure uniformity throughout the country in the due execution of the law, the Director of Public Prosecutions will, by a requisition in virtue of the Regulations under the Prosecution of Offences Acts, 1879 and 1881, require the chief officer of every police district to furnish him with such information as the Regulations prescribe respecting the offence of unlawful betting on racecourses and similar places within his district?
MR. JAMES LOWTHER (Kent, Thanet)asked whether the Home Secretary was aware that further legal proceedings were pending arising out of the decision in the Queen's Bench Division referred to?
§ SIR MATTHEW WHITE RIDLEYI am not aware whether further proceedings are possible with the exception of those involved by the remission of this case to the magistrates. I will answer both Questions of the hon. Member for Bethnal Green at the same time. My attention has not been called to the case he mentions, and the decision of the High Court is of so recent a date and involves so many questions requiring serious consideration that it is quite impossible for me to give him a complete answer at present. Perhaps the hon. Member will be good enough to postpone his question for a few days.