§ MR. WEDGWOOD (Newcastle-under-Lyme)To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will say for what offences the 437 persons under sixteen years of age were committed to prison in default of paying fines of 10s. or less in England and Wales during the: twelve months ended 31st March, 1906; and how many such persons were committed in respect of each offence.
(Answered by Mr. Secretary Gladstone). I regret that I have not got this information. To obtain it I should again have to ask for Returns from every prison in England and Wales, and I am very unwilling, considering the great trouble taken by prison officials to collect materials for answering my hon. friend's Question of the 31st October,† to ask them to ex- amine the cases a second time to supply this further information. My hon. friend will find in tables VIII. and XIII. of the Judicial Statistics a great deal of information as to the offences of which persons under sixteen were convicted.