MR. PIKE PEASEI beg to ask the Prime Minister whether he is aware that the total cost of Poor Law Administration (including interest on loans) was approximately £15,000,000 for the last financial year, and that in spite of this fact there are more vagrants without any visible means of subsistence in the United Kingdom than in any other European country; and, under these circumstances, will His Majesty's Government consider the advisability of carrying out the unanimous recommendations of the Departmental Vagrancy Committee, which reported on 21st February, 1906.
§ SIR H. CAMPBELL-BANNERMANThe amount expended for the relief of the poor in England and Wales in the year ended at Lady Day, 1906, was £14,218,598, exclusive of expenditure out of loans. The amount of the expenditure during the last financial year has not yet been ascertained. The Local Government Board are not aware of any reliable figures enabling a comparison to be made between the number of vagrants in the United Kingdom and in other European countries. The matter is receiving the consideration of the Home Office and the Local Government Board which are the Departments concerned, but I am advised that legislation would be necessary to give effect to the principal recommendations of the Committee, and I am afraid that it will not be practicable to propose legislation on the subject this year.