§ MR. DUNN (Cornwall, Camborne)To ask the Prime Minister, whether he is aware that, according to a recently published Report of the Commissioners in Lunacy, of 123,988 persons certified as incurably insane in England and Wales, over 40 per cent. are married, and that consequently upwards of 57,000 persons are thus condemned by law to enforced celibacy; and whether, having regard to the fact that the greater number of such persons are in poor circumstances and to the evils arising from the existing state of the law, he will afford facilities for the consideration of the Bill for the amendment of the present law of divorce.
(Answered by Mr. Asquith.) My right hon. friend has ask me to answer 404 this Question for him. The number of persons certified to be insane and known to be under care is, I understand, as stated. Of the males so certified, the official statistics show that 47.6 were married, and of the females, 45 per cent. These persons, however, are not certified as incurably insane and a proportion of them recover. The Government cannot undertake to afford facilities for the consideration of the Bill for the amendment of the present law of divorce.