§ VISCOUNT CASTLEREAGH (Maidstone)To ask the President of the Board of Education whether he will state, in respect of each year since 1898, the total number of children exempted from the obligation to attend school under the provisions of the Elementary Education (School Attendance) Act (1893) Amendment Act, 1899, the number of exemptions in respect of children in Lancashire, and the number of exemptions under the provision of the above - mentioned Act of 1899, relating to children employed in agriculture.
(Answered by Mr. Runciman.) No statistics are available as to the number of children entitled to exemption under the bye-laws or under the Act to which the noble Lord refers. My right hon. friend the Secretary of State for the Home Department, in an Answer given on 11th March, stated the number of children employed as half-timers in factories, workshops, and laundries in the United Kingdom, and in textile factories in Lancashire and Yorkshire, and he could also furnish the number of children between thirteen and fourteen years of age certified for employment as "young persons" under Section 63 of the Factory Act. I regret I have no information as to the number of agricultural exemptions, but I may say that, out of 364 separate sets of bye-laws approved by the Board of Education, ninety-seven contain the special clause enabling children to be employed in agriculture at the age of eleven.