Mr. HERBERT (Buckinghamshire, Wycombe)To ask the President of the Board of Education whether he can see his way by regulation to authorise the 1323 acceptance of a certificate by a district nurse as to the inability of a child to attend school in country districts owing to the difficulty often experienced of obtaining the certificate of a medical practitioner.
(Answered by Mr. Runciman.) The matter is not dealt with by the Board's regulations. It is for the local education authority in each area to say, in the first instance, what evidence they will accept under the law of school attendance as sufficient to excuse a child from attending school, and in cases of prosecution for non-attendance it is for the magistrates to decide as to the sufficiency of the evidence and excuse.