§ MR. BULL (Hammersmith)I beg to ask the First Lord of the Treasury whether the Government intend to take any steps to ensure the better preservation of local records in order to prevent the destruction and falsification of wills, parish registers, and other records, such as the recent Shipway case demonstrates can in their present custody be perpetrated; and, if no scheme has been decided upon, will the Government take steps in conjunction with local authorities to gradually establish suitable local records for counties or groups of counties in convenient centres, similar in their scope to the Register House at Edinburgh or the Record Office at Dublin; and can he state whether the Treasury Committee appointed in 1900 to consider the better preservation of local records has yet made any report thereon; if not, when will such report be made.
§ MR. A. J. BALFOURThe investigations of this Committee are far advanced, but its final Report has been delayed owing to the lamented death of the late Bishop of London. Still, I understand that it is likely to be published before the end of the session.