HC Deb 04 August 1913 vol 56 cc1045-6W
Mr. WADSWORTH

asked the President of the Local Government Board if he will state when the Return of starvation cases for 1912 will be published; what number of deaths it will contain; whether the Local Government Board made any further and, if so, what inquiries, either from the St. Pancras guardians or any of those guardians' officers, as to the case of a child aged thirteen months, numbered fifty-two in the starvation Return for 1911, who, according to the verdict of the coroner's jury, died in that parish from exhaustion while suffering from broncho-pneumonia, rickets, and malnutrition, accelerated by want of sufficient food shortly after its out-relief had ceased; and what steps, if any, the Local Government Board had taken with reference to that case?

Mr. BURNS

The Return for 1912 is in course of preparation, and it is contemplated that it will be issued shortly. So far as can be stated at present it will include rather less than 100 cases. When the particulars of case fifty-two in the Return for 1911 were received from the coroner, the Local Government Board communicated with the guardians with respect to it, and obtained their observations which are printed in the Parliamentary Return.