Mr. FENWICKasked the Secretary of State for the Home Department whether he is aware that a boy named Ralph R. Silson, aged fourteen years and ten months, was committed to Netherton training school on 22nd February last; whether he was vaccinated in the institution without the consent of the father having been asked; and whether, seeing that the law only compels the vaccination of children up to the age of fourteen years even in the absence of conscientious objection, he will say under what powers the school authorities acted?
Mr. DUDLEY WARDMy right hon. Friend is informed that this boy was vaccinated in accordance with the instructions of the medical officer of the school, that all boys must be vaccinated after admission, unless they are in an unfit state of health or have very recently been vaccinated. The boys are committed by the court to the custody of the managers, who are for the time in loco parentis; and it is their duty to safeguard the health of the inmates of the school.