§ MR. BOWERMAN (Deptford)I beg to ask the President of the Local Government Board whether he can say how many of the employees of the Hampstead 1116 Borough Council have been vaccinated within the past six years; whether he is aware that the fee charged for each employee was 5s., and that they were vaccinated by a doctor who is, and was, a member of the council at the time; and whether, seeing that the council employed a member of its own body to do this work, he proposes to take any, and what, action in the matter.
§ THE PRESIDENT OF THE LOCAL GOVERNMENT BOARD, (Mr. JOHN BURNS,) BatterseaI am informed that the borough council have never made any conditions as to the vaccination of their employees, and they have no record of the number vaccinated during the past six years. I find, however, that during the last epidemic of smallpox in 1901 one of the employees, who had not been vaccinated, died of the disease, and hence three of the committees of the borough council thought it desirable that the staff of their respective departments should be vaccinated. This opinion was conveyed to the employees in these departments, but it was stated that the committee in no way desired to compel them to be vaccinated against their own wishes. Thirty-three persons have as a result been vaccinated, eight by the public vaccinator and twenty-three by the deputy public vaccinator. The deputy public vaccinator was and is a member of the borough council, but he was not employed by the borough council in this matter, nor has he received from them any fees in respect of it. The employees were at liberty to go to any medical man they pleased; and they went to the public vaccinator or his deputy because by so doing they were vaccinated free of charge. The usual fee in respect of the operation would be paid by the board of guardians of the parish.
§ MR. LUPTON (Lincolnshire, Sleaford)Is it within the recollection of the right hon. Gentleman that at the time of this epidemic several men who were vaccinated died as the result of the operation in a terrible condition of corruption?
§ MR. JOHN BURNSNo, Sir; it is not within my recollection.