§ The following question stood upon the Order Paper in the name of Mr. THORNE:
§ 23. To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he can now give any information in connection with the girl killed by falling masonry at Newport, Monmouthshire, on Friday last, from the Savoy Buildings which are being demolished; and if the road and footpaths were protected?
§ Mr. ThorneI would like to point out that I made a mistake about the date in the question.
§ Sir S. HoareI presume the hon. Member refers to the accident about which he asked me a question on the 6th instant. I understand that there was in fact no hoarding between the building and the footway at the point at which the accident happened, and that the contractor who undertook the demolition of the building has been brought before the magistrates on a charge of manslaughter, but that the bench discharged him, expressing the view that there had been negligence but no evidence of culpable negligence sufficient to justify his committal for trial.