HC Deb 08 December 1908 vol 198 cc242-3
MR. J. MACVEAGH

I beg to ask the Secretary to the Treasury whether in view of the fact that Section 3(1) (a) of the Old-Age Pensions Act, 1908, expressly states that any relief which by the law is expressly declared not to be a disqualification for registration as a Parliamentary elector, or as a reason for depriving any person of any franchise right or privilege, shall not be considered as poor relief, he will state on what grounds the Board of Inland Revenue has issued instructions to pension officers that persons treated in union infirmaries or hospitals are disqualified from receiving the old-age pension, seeing that it has been held in the case of McCreery v. Hanrahan, No. 16, 1887, that relief given in a union hospital was medical or surgical assistance, and therefore not a disqualification.

MR. HOBHOUSE

I understand that no general instructions have been issued but that pension officers in their reports to pension committees have treated claimants in these cases as disqualified. The decision rests, of course, not with pension officers but with the committees, subject to appeal to the Local Government Board.

MR. J. MACVEAGH

Have any instructions been issued to the effect that these applicants should be passed?

MR. HOBHOUSE

No general instructions.

MR. J. MACVEAGH

Is the right hon. Gentleman aware that the Registration (Ireland) Act specifically provides that Poor Law medical relief shall not disqualify for the Parliamentary franchise, and will he see that the law in Ireland in this respect is followed?

MR. HOBHOUSE

We can only act on the advice of the Law Officers of the Crown, which is in accordance with the Answer I have given to the Question.

MR. J. MACVEAGH

Then I will ask the Attorney-General for Ireland if the Parliamentary Registration (Ireland) Act, 1885, does not expressly lay it down that relief of this kind shall be no disqualification for the Parliamentary franchise.

THE ATTORNEY-GENERAL FOR IRELAND (Mr. CHERRY,) Liverpool, Exchange

I must ask for notice of that Question. I cannot answer it off-hand.