HC Deb 30 December 1912 vol 46 cc9-10
13. Mr. WEDGWOOD

asked the Home Secretary how many persons were prosecuted by the police for being found on the Embankment at night without visible means of subsistence during each of the months of September, October, and November of this year; how many were taken from the Embankment and sent to casual wards by the police during the same months; and whether this new method of treating the destitute originated in his Department or in the Local Government Board?

Mr. McKENNA

The scheme referred to by my hon. Friend has been in operation over a restricted area in the neighbourhood of the Embankment during the last two months only. Tickets entitling the-bearer to receive shelter are given by the police to all homeless persons found on the Embankment. The recipient has only to present the ticket at the appointed place to receive from the officer of the Metropolitan Asylums Board (the authority controlling the London casual wards) an order for admission to a casual ward or to shelter provided by a charitable agency, as the circumstances of each case require. During the two months twelve persons found on the Embankment without visible means of subsistence, who had refused the shelter offered them, were charged by the police as vagrants. The scheme was undertaken by the Metropolitan Asylums Board at the suggestion of the Local Government Board. The object is to enable the authorities to render assistance in deserving cases, and to clear the Embankment of the undesirable characters resorting there, and the experiment has had a considerable measure of success.

Mr. WEDGWOOD

Is anybody without visible means of support charged with being in that condition on the Embankment, unless he accepts one of these tickets, goes to the casual ward, and does two days' work to pay for his keep in the casual ward?

Mr. McKENNA

When my hon. Friend has an opportunity of reading the answer I have given, he will see that all his questions are sufficiently answered.

Mr. WEDGWOOD

Is there a punishment inflicted upon those persons who do not go to the casual ward?

Mr. McKENNA

No.

Mr. W. THORNE

What else are poor people to do who have nowhere but the Embankment to go to?

Mr. McKENNA

That is a large subject, and should be dealt with by my right hon. Friend the President of the Local Government Board rather than by myself.