Lords Sitting of 26 February 1889

THE ROYAL COMMISSION ON REFORMATORIES AND INDUSTRIAL SCHOOLS, 1883.

  QUESTION. OBSERVATIONS.
  LORD NORTON, in rising to ask Her Majesty's Government how soon they hoped the Bill they had prepared on the Report of the Royal Commission on Reformatories and Industrial Schools, 1883, might be introduced as promised in that House, said: My Lords, the Royal Commission on Reformatories and Industrial Schools was presided over by Lord Aberdare, and during two years bestowed very great labour upon their investigations both here and in circuit through the three kingdoms. Lord Aberdare, some two years ago, expressed his sense of the great importance of immediate action on the subject, and I know that a Bill has been prepared in the Home Office for the past two years. The Bill is not only important by way of consolidating the great many Acts on the subject, which are now very confused, but also in the interest of the Treasury, and in the far higher interests of the community in general, and of the moral responsibility of parents of the lower class towards their children. The abuses of the existing law are such that unless they are checked the whole system should be discontinued. I may mention, in illustration of that view, that there are cases in which parents have been known to ask how to qualify their children for a reformatory. Negligent and disreputable parents appreciate the advantages they
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  get in sending their children to these schools regardless of the criminal life by which they so get rid of them. In Scotland there is this other kind of abuse, that the Pauper Schools are emptied into Industrial Schools, by which means the charge for neglected children is imposed upon the Treasury instead of upon the rates. These are some of the abuses which it is equally important, in the interests of the Treasury and in those of the community, should be remedied without further delay. No doubt the delay has been caused during the past five years by the Home Secretary wishing to introduce his own measure in the other House, where business has been so much impeded. If, however, the Bill is introduced in your Lordships' House, it will meet, I am sure, with fair discussion, and I venture to hope it will have so rapid a passage that it may get to the other House in time to secure its passing into law in the present Session.
  EARL BROWNLOW: My Lords, the Question asked by the noble Lord in the course of last Session, and the Report of the Royal Commission which was presented to the House, naturally aroused during the Recess considerable interest among those who were familiar with the question of Reformatory and Industrial Schools, and it is only natural that a number of applications should have been made to Her Majesty's Government on the subject. My Lords, although the Government do not see any reason to interfere with the principle, or to alter the details of the measure in any material point, still there are a number of small points which have been brought before the Government which they consider important. For the purpose of introducing these matters, a Bill has been sent to the Government draftsman, and is now in his office. I can

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  assure the noble Lord that there will be no delay whatever in bringing it forward; it will be presented to the House the moment it is out of the draftsman's office. I fear it is impossible for me to name any exact day under the circumstances, but I hope that by the week after next the Bill will be in a proper state to be brought forward in your Lordships' House.
  House adjourned at a quarter before Five o'clock, to Thursday next, a quarter past Ten o'clock.