Miss Rathbone:

asked the Minister of Health whether he is aware that a statutory declaration of conscientious objection to vaccination made by the wife of a labourer in the Royal Arsenal, Woolwich, on behalf of her child, was recently refused by the vaccination officer of the Metropolitan borough of Woolwich on the ground that only the declaration of the father of the child could be accepted, he having its legal custody; that in this case the father was prevented from making a declaration owing to his hours of work being from 8.20 a.m. to 6 p.m., and that in many other cases the father may be prevented by illness, mental disability, or temporary absence from home; and whether he will consider making such a change in the regulations as will enable the mother to make the declaration?