§ 33. Sir JOHN JARDINEasked the Secretary of State for the Home Department if any inquiry has been made by his Department into the circumstances under which sixty-nine persons, all chargeable to the Swansea Union, had been detained in different lunatic asylums without having been seen by any Justice of the Peace, as required by the Lunacy Act; whether these alleged lunatics were sent to the asylums by orders of Justices of the Peace, and, if so, what commission of the peace did these Justices belong to; and whether, since the 178 procedure as regards these sixty-nine paupers in the Swansea Union was reported as irregular in the Sixty-sixth Report of the Commissioners in Lunacy, any general inquiry into the procedure in other unions or by other Commissioners of the Peace has been made, with a view to protect personal liberty, and with what results?
§ Mr. McKENNAThe matter was fully investigated by the Lunacy Commissioners at the time, and no further inquiry has been made. The orders in the cases referred to were made by Justices of Swansea. Special steps were taken at the time, as indicated in the report, to call the attention of Justices and Union officials to the requirements of the Act, and at every visit to an asylum or workhouse the Commissioners carefully investigate the regularity of all admission papers.
§ 37. Sir J. JARDINEasked the Secretary of State for the Home Department whether, in the case brought to his notice of an alleged lunatic who had not been personally seen by a magistrate and was incarcerated in a private institution for lunatics and was not informed by the manager thereof that he had a right of appeal under Section 8 of the Lunacy Act, any investigation was made to ascertain the circumstances and the truth of the patient's statement?
§ Mr. McKENNAInquiry was made by the Lunacy Commissioners, and they were satisfied that a notice, as required by section 8, Sub-section (2), was given to the patient by the manager within twenty-four hours of his receiving the reception order.