§ MR. VINCENT KENNEDY (Cavan, W.)I beg to ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will state the number of cases of cruelty to children brought before Courts of summary jurisdiction for the month of June last; the number of offenders; the amount of fines struck; the imprisonment-inflicted; the amount for which children dealt with were insured; and how many of these children had untimely deaths.
§ MR. AKERS-DOUGLASI regret that there are no means of obtaining this information for the whole of the cases of cruelty to children dealt with by the Courts. The annual Criminal Statistics give the total number of persons proceeded against in each year for this offence, the number convicted, the number imprisoned, with the terms of imprisonment imposed, and the number fined. The latest year for which figures are at present available is 1903. A statement of the cases dealt with by the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children is published by the society every month. Their statement for the month of June will probably appear very shortly.
§ MR. VINCENT KENNEDYThe statement was, as a matter of fact, published a fortnight ago.