§ MR. SERJEANT SIMONasked the Secretary of State for the Home Department, Whether any and what measures have been taken since the passing of the Prisons Act, 1877 (40 and 41 Vic. c. 21), to regulate the system of prison labour in trades and manufactures, so as to prevent undue pressure on, or competition with, any particular trade or industry; whether his attention has been called to the fact that the Prison Commissioners' Report of 1878 does not state the various manufacturing processes carried on in each of the prisons within their jurisdiction, or the particulars as to the kind and quantities of, and the commercial value of the labour on such manufactures, as is required by the Act; what is the reason of these omissions; whether they will be prevented in future; 1855 and, when the next Report will be laid upon the Table of the House?
MR. ASSHETON CROSSA very large proportion of the mat-making which used to be carried on in prisons has been given up. One great object of it was to supply the means of employment requisite for the prisoners themselves. The Report alluded to in the Question is not the annual Report of the Commissioners. The annual Report under the Act of Parliament cannot be made up until the end of the first year after the passing of the Act. Whenever it is completed it will be laid on the Table of the House.