§ Mr. MITCHELL-THOMSON (for Mr. Cochrane)asked the Secretary of State for the Home Department whether he is aware that a Memorandum, purporting to be official, has been sent to certain justice of the peace clerks directing them to read into Section 25, Sub-section 1, of the Children Act certain words which were deleted during the passage of the Act through Parliament; and will he say by whose authority this Memorandum was sent out?
§ The SECRETARY for the HOME DEPARTMENT (Mr. Gladstone)I presume the hon. Member refers to a Memorandum issued by the Stationery Office forwarding certain corrected leaves to be substituted for the leaves of the Act as first issued. This Memorandum was sent to all officers to whom the Acts are applied. It had to be issued in consequence of an oversight, which was explained by the Financial Secretary to the Treasury, in reply to a question on the 25th May last. The words alluded to, in Section 25, were omitted in the House of Lords, but when the Bill was returned to this House the Lords' Amendment was disagreed to, and the House of Lords acquiesced.