§ Mr. DALZIELI beg to ask the Lord Advocate whether the Secretary for Scotland has received a representation from the Abbotshall Parish Council urging that any action in regard to the prosecution of parents who have declined to have their children vaccinated should be delayed until after the election of a new council, which will shortly take place; whether the Local Government Board have intimated that, unless the council prosecute within 10 days, the members of the council will be summoned before the Court of Session; and whether he can secede to the request of the parish council?
§ THE LORD ADVOCATE (Mr. GRAHAM MURRAY,) ButeshireIn reply to the first portion of the honourable Member's Question, the Secretary for Scotland in- 214 forms me that he received a letter from the Chairman of the Abbotshall Parish Council a day or two ago, but the letter does not state that it is written by desire of the council. In reply to the second portion, the Local Government Board did make the intimation referred to, in strict conformity with the terms of the Statute which regulates their procedure in such cases. The Secretary for Scotland cannot, as at present advised, undertake to interfere with the ordinary course of the law in cases of a first prosecution, though he does not propose to make any change in the existing practice, nor to insist for cumulative prosecutions for the same offence.