§ Mr. FORRESTasked the Home Secretary whether his attention has been called to the action taken by certain registration officers in demanding that the forms now being sent out to householders under the Representation of the People Act, requiring information as to the residents in their houses from 1st September to 1st December, shall be returned within five days of their delivery, in spite of the impossibility of guaranteeing the accuracy of such returns at this early date; and whether, in the circumstances, he will instruct the officers concerned that the forms may be retained until 1st December, when they can be filled up in the light of knowledge?
§ Sir W. JOYNSON-HICKSI am aware that in many cases the forms have been supplied to householders with the view to the returns being made before 1st December. This has been done, I have no doubt, to avoid delay in the preparation of the register, and the matter is one which I must leave to the discretion of the registration officers, who have a very heavy task to overtake in a limited time.