§ MR. SYDNEY BUXTON (Tower Hamlets, Poplar)I beg to ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department when the Annual Returns, under Section 34 of the Act of 1895, and also the half-yearly Returns of the Outworkers, under Section 42 of the same Act, will be published.
I beg also to ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department when the Annual Return will be published, ordered by Section 34 of the Act of 1895, and omitted from the Factory Inspector's Report for 1899, and promised in reply of the Home Secretary on the 31st July, 1900.
§ *MR. RITCHIEIf the hon. Member will permit me, I will answer his two questions together. It was intended to publish the Fourth and Fifth Annual Returns of persons employed in the Chief Inspector's Report for 1900; but, in order to hasten the publication of that Report, the Chief Inspector has decided to omit them and to publish them separately. They will be taken in hand as soon as the Chief Inspector's Report for 1900 is completed. It has not been usual to publish any analysis of the outworkers' lists, but this was done once—in the Report for 1899. I will consider whether it would be useful to have it done in the present year.
§ *SIR CHARLES DILKE (Gloucestershire, Forest of Dean)When does the right hon. Gentleman expect to be able to publish the first part of the Report?
§ *MR. RITCHIEI should not like to make any promise; I am doing all I can to push it on.