MR. PIKE PEASEI bog to ask the Prime Minister whether His Majesty's Government will consider the advisability of passing a Bill giving power to school authorities to prosecute parents who have failed, by their own default, to provide sufficient food for their children.
§ SIR H. CAMPBELL-BANNERMANThe advisability of extending the existing powers of prosecuting parents for neglecting their children was very fully considered and discussed by the Select Committee on the Education (Provision of Meals) Bill of last session. That Committee, after taking evidence on the question, decided that the existing powers arising under the Prevention of Cruelty to Children Act, 1904, Sections 3, 21, and 33, the Vagrancy Act of 1824, Sections 3 and 4, and to a certain extent under the Poor Law Act of 1899, and the Industrial Schools Act of 1866, are sufficient without giving the additional powers suggested in the Question.