SIR WALTER FOSTERTo ask the President of the Local Government Board whether during the last few years the Bradford Guardians have reduced the number of applications for out-relief, and whether they have discouraged applications for medical out-relief by requiring parents (in the case of sick children) to attend before the board or a committee, or by making the relief on loan in the first instance, or by other means; and, if so, whether he would send a communication to the guardians recommending them to encourage applications for medical out-relief (by those unable to pay for medical advice) in the early stages of illness, and before infectious diseases have developed.
(Answered by Mr. Gerald Balfour.) I am aware that some few years since the Bradford Guardians adopted a policy of administration of out-relief, the effect of which has been to diminish the number of applications, but I have no information to show that the action of the guardians has been such as to render it necessary or desirable to send to them a communication of the kind referred to in the latter part of the Question.