§ MR. RAMSAY MACDONALDTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department whether his attention has been drawn to the second column in Table 6 of Part II. of the Supplement to the Annual Report of the Chief Inspector of Factories and Workshops for the year 1906, where the number of lists of outworkers sent in by employers who fulfil the legal obligation to send in two lists 815 in the year are given separately from those who have sent in only one in the year; whether he has noticed that the numbers are, in many cases, odd and not even, in one case the number given being one; whether the same thing appears in Table 5, which gives the details of the returns according to industries; and whether he can give any explanation why these apparent mistakes have occurred.
(Answered by Mr. Secretary Gladstone.) I am aware of the figures to which the hon. Member calls attention. The figures have been tabulated as received from the medical officers of health. As explained in the introduction to the Return issued in 1906, the Department is unable to clear up by correspondence minor points of doubt that arise in connection with these figures. The errors, which are not very important, are no doubt due to some misunderstanding on the part of the medical officers, and the question whether the instructions as to filling up the tables can be made clearer will be considered before they are again issued.