§ Mr. BURGOYNEasked the Secretary of State for the Home Department whether he is aware that the Metropolitan Police Regulations do not allow of the examination by an independent medical man of a person who has been taken into custody and charged by the police with being found drunk on licensed premises, 810 although the opinion of the police surgeon as to the condition of such person is invariably obtained for the purposes of the police prosecution of such person and the licensee of the premises; and whether, having regard to the subsequent proceedings under the Licensing Acts which usually follow against the licensee of the premises upon which the alleged drunken person was found, he will recommend that in those cases in which application is made to the police by the licensee facilities will be granted for an independent medical examination of the person alleged to be drunk, and, if not, is he prepared to recommend that the person charged should at the same time be informed by the police that if he so desires he may be examined by an independent medical man at his own expense instead of by the police surgeon?
§ Mr. McKENNAThe Metropolitan Police Regulations require that the divisional surgeon be at once sent for when a prisoner charged with drunkenness denies that he is drunk, and they further provide that the prisoner's own doctor be sent for if he wishes. There could be no more independent examination than that of the divisional surgeon, who holds his appointment from the Secretary of State, and is always a practitioner of good standing.