HC Deb 27 July 1899 vol 75 cc510-1
SIR CHARLES CAMERON (Glasgow, Bridgeton)

I beg to ask the Lord Advo- cate whether the attention of the Local Government Board has been called to a resolution passed by the South Uist Parish Council on the 19th instant, asserting that the children whose cases formed the subject of the charges in respect of which Dr. Lamont was in March last unanimously acquitted by an Inverness jury have not been effectively vaccinated, and directing their clerk to take legal steps to have the certificates of vaccination reduced and rescinded and the entries in the parish registers relating to them deleted with a view of placing the names of the children and their parents on the list of defaulters; whether, before spending the money of the ratepayers in litigation with a view to compelling the parents of these children under penalty of fine or imprisonment to submit their children to revaccination, any attempt has been made by the parish council to ascertain whether they object to the operation in any cases in which the medical officer may consider that operation desirable; in how many of the sixteen cases vaccinated by Dr. Lamont, and alleged by the parish council not to have been effectually vaccinated, the local authorities had allowed the statutory age to elapse prior to Dr. Lamont's appointment without taking any steps to enforce vaccination; and whether, in case it should appear that the legal proceedings threatened are vindictive and unnecessary, the official auditor has power to protect the ratepayers by surcharging the members of the parish council with the costs incurred.

* THE LORD ADVOCATE (Mr. A. GRAHAM MURRAY,) Buteshire

As regards the first, second, and third paragraphs of the question, the Local Government Board have no information except what has been derived from the newspapers, and cannot, therefore, at present either affirm or deny the accuracy of the statements made. As to the last paragraph, the Official Auditor in Scotland has no power of surcharge, his duty being limited to reporting to the Local Government Board any payments which he may consider illegal. The question as to surcharging or not depends upon the Board, and it is impossible to pronounce an opinion till the facts are known.