Part of Oral Answers to Questions — Scotland – in the House of Commons at 12:00 am on 28 July 1959.
Mrs Jean Mann
, Coatbridge and Airdrie
12:00,
28 July 1959
Does the Secretary of State know that I saw the report in full last week for the first time, and that it is a shocking report? There ought to have been an inquiry. The case is much more tragic than that of the Thurso boy. Is the right hon. Gentleman aware that a doctor saw this boy and certified that he was in a state of terror owing to the harsh treatment of the new foster parents to whom he had been removed? It is no use dwelling on recriminations, but will the Secretary of State bear in mind that, if Section 7 of the Children Act, 1958, had been extended to local authorities, this tragedy might never have occurred, because it would have given foster parents the right to appeal? Will he consider revising the law?
Secretary of State was originally the title given to the two officials who conducted the Royal Correspondence under Elizabeth I. Now it is the title held by some of the more important Government Ministers, for example the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs.