HC Deb 22 March 1905 vol 143 c794
MR. WEIR (Ross and Cromarty)

I beg to ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, in view of the fact that magistrates throughout the country place different constructions on the term "conscientious objection," as defined in the Vaccination Act, 1898, cases having recently occurred in which a man who has been granted a certificate of exemption for one child his been refused a certificate for another, although he has, in each instance, raised precisely the same conscientious objection to vaccination, will he state when he proposes to lay upon the Table of the House the Circular issued by the Home Office calling attention to the remarks made by the Lord Chief Justice relative to the principle on which the Act ought to be administered; and will he consider the expediency of so amending the Act as to remove the difficulty experienced by magistrates.

*MR. AKERS-DOUGLAS

If the hon. Member will move for this Circular in the form of a Return I shall be happy to grant it. The question of legislation on the subject of vaccination is one for the President of the Local Government Board.