§ MR. COOPER (Southwark, Bermondsey)To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department whether, as he does not advise the prosecution of motor cab drivers who take more passengers than they are licensed to carry, except in cases of serious overcrowding, why the police rigidly carry out the regulation as to the number of passengers a tramcar is licensed to carry, and the reason why the tramcar is treated differently in this respect to motor cabs.
(Answered by Mr. Secretary Gladstone). If more than the authorised number of persons are admitted into a tramcar the passengers are inconvenienced, generally against their wishes. When a motor cab is hired no one is inconvenienced by any overcrowding except the hirer and his friends, and there is no object in prosecuting except where the overcrowding is such as to cause danger.