§ Sir EDWARD COATESasked the Home Secretary whether he will explain why the Board of Control have refused their consent, except on a condition involving considerable and immediate capital expenditure, to a scheme submitted by the County Council of Surrey as the local authority under the Mental Deficiency Act, 1913, by which it was proposed to appropriate for the purposes of this Act land and premises forming part of but not required for the immediate purposes of one of their county lunatic asylums, and under which the council could have made an immediate commencement in the exercise of such of their statutory duties under the Act as are considered to be urgently pressing without the necessity of incurring any considerable capital expenditure at a most unpropitious time; if the reason for such refusal is that the scheme would involve the transfer of about twenty-nine inmates of the premises in question into the main asylum buildings and the consequent removal therefrom of a certain number of outcounty contract cases for whom the Surrey County Council are not responsible; and whether he will see that the council is not prevented from carrying out their statutory obligations in respect of a far larger number of unfortunate persons for whom they are responsible?
§ Mr. McKENNAI have consulted the Board and am satisfied that the proposal to use a small asylum building for defectives would not adequately carry out the duties imposed on the local authority by the Mental Deficiency Act, while it would diminish the accommodation which is necessary and will soon be urgently required for the proper fulfilment of the 907W duties under the Lunacy Act. In these circumstances I cannot interfere with the decision at which the Board have arrived, and to which after full consideration they feel that they must adhere.