§ Mr. ORMSBY-GOREasked the President of the Local Government Board if he will state the number of children who, at the date of the last Return, were being maintained in workhouses and workhouse infirmaries respectively, differentiating between those over and those under three years of age?
§ Mr. BURNSThe latest Returns, namely, those for 1st January, 1910, show that the number of children in separate Poor Law infirmaries in England and Wales was 7,128, whilst the number in workhouse wards (including infirm wards) was 17,047. The Returns do not show how many of these children were over three years of age and how many were under that age, but they show that of the total number of children in all Poor Law establishments 8,914 were under the age of three. The majority of these would necessarily be in workhouses and workhouse infirmaries, and could not well be separated from their mothers.