§ MR. H. H. MARKS (Kent, Thanet)I beg to ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department whether it is intended to adopt the recommendations in the Report of the Select Committee on Cabs and Omnibuses (Metropolis), and to introduce the tariff commencing with a sixpenny fare for a short distance, combined with the use of the taximeter working on the horo-kilométrique, or hour-mile system; and when the new regulations are to come into operation.
§ MR. NORMAN (Wolverhampton, S.)At the same time may I ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will state what steps have been taken, or are proposed, to carry out the recommendations of the Select Committee on Cabs and Omnibuses (Metropolis), especially with regard to the system of privileged cabs at railway stations.
§ *MR. GLADSTONEThe recommendations contained in the very useful Report of the Select Committee, of which my hon. friend was Chairman, are under the consideration of myself and the Commissioner of Metropolitan Police. Some of those which are within the competence of the Commissioner have already been carried out, and an order and regulations dealing with a number of others are now in draft. I am not yet able to make any statement with regard to the proposed new tariff and the use of the taximeter. The privileged cab question is one of well-known difficulty, but I am of opinion that it must be dealt with.