§ 17. Mr. GEORGE GREENWOODasked the Home Secretary whether, in view of the fact that certain benches of magistrates have conceived that they have power to send an offender against the Vagrancy Act, 1898, to the quarter sessions to be dealt with as an incorrigible rogue under the Vagrancy Act, 1824, and in view of the fact that certain Courts of Quarter Sessions have conceived that they have power so to deal with such an offender and to sentence him to be flogged under the provisions of the Tenth Section of the Act of 1824, and that such floggings have been from time to time so directed and administered, he will issue a circular to the magistrates and recorders in England and Wales, drawing attention to the real state of the law, in order to prevent the recurrence of such occurrences?
§ 18. Mr. MOLTENOasked the Home Secretary whether, in view of the doubts which have arisen whether the penalty of flogging is legal under the Vagrancy Act of 1898, and in view of the number of floggings which have recently been administered under that Act, he will draw the attention of the magistrates and recorders of England and Wales to the possibility of these floggings being held to be unauthorised?
§ Mr. McKENNAThe legal question is shortly to be brought before the Court of Criminal Appeal, and, pending their decision, the sentences of flogging in these cases are suspended.