§ SIR FREDERICK MILNER (Nottinghamshire. Bassetlaw)To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department whether he is aware that during the last five years in Liverpool 248 licences have been taken away by the magistrates, and that proceedings for drunkenness have increased from 4,069 in 1899 to 7,507 in 1903; and, if so, whether he can take steps by legislation or otherwise to deal with the matter.
(Answered by Mr. Secretary Akers-Douglas.) Accepting the figures given as correct (though I have been unable to verify the number of licences stated to have been taken away), I confess that I do not gather from the Question what is the evil which my right hon. friend suggests should be remedied by legislation. I may say that the increase in prosecutions for drunkenness is discussed in the Report on the Liverpool Police for 1903, and is attributed by the head constable not to an increase in drunkenness but to a more strict administration of the law, due, in some part, to the Licensing Act of 1902.