§ MR. LOUGH (Islington, W.)To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department whether he is aware that a system exists in the metropolis under which the Chief Commissioner of Police suspends for various periods the licence of drivers or conductors in the service of omnibus companies for offences for which they have already been punished by fine or otherwise; and if so, whether he can see his way to promise that this practice will be reconsidered by the Chief Commissioner with a view to its modification.
(Answered by Mr. Secretary Akers-Douglas.) The practice to which the hon. Member draws attention is of old standing; and when, in 1864, it was brought before the Court of Queen's Bench in the case of Regina v. Commissioners of Police, the Court held that the suspension of the licence was within the powers of the Commissioner, and the Lord Chief Justice expressed the opinion that it was a "salutary check." The Commissioner, who exercises this power with discretion and without undue severity, considers it necessary to the preservation of proper conduct in the men, and therefore essential in the public interest, and in this view I concur.