§ MR. WEDGWOOD (Newcastle-under-Lyme)To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will say how many boys and girls under twelve and between twelve and sixteen were apprehended by the Metropolitan Police in 1907; and what are the regulations with regard to the detention, care, and feeding of such offenders at the police stations.
(Answered by Mr. Secretary Gladstone.) Statistics for the whole year 1907 are not yet available. During the first six months of that year, 2,723 boys and girls, Tinder sixteen years of age, were apprehended by the Metropolitan Police. Care is taken to release such offenders on recognisance at the earliest moment, and if it is necessary to detain them they are detained (whenever possible) elsewhere than in the cells, a matron being in attendance in the case of girls and children of tender years. Meals, consisting of tea, coffee, cocoa, or milk, with bread and butter, are given.