§ MR. QUILTER (Suffolk, Sudbury)asked the Under Secretary of State for the Home Department, Whether it is a fact that such a large quantity of mats of one class are made in prisons that the authorities are obliged to sell them continually below the regular list price; and, if so, whether he will take steps to insure mat-weaving in prisons being spread over the whole range of the list, so as to prevent the excessive manufacture of one class of mat; whether, in view of the injury done to employers of free labour by the jobbing of prison labour to certain mat-making firms, the Government will take steps to put an end to the system; and, whether it is a fact that a former official in one of Her Majesty's prisons has had for some years the disposal of the labour of four or more prisons?
§ THE UNDER SECRETARY OF STATE (Mr. STUART-WORTLEY) (Sheffield, Hallam)It is not a fact that large quantities of mats of one class are made in prisons, nor that the authorities are obliged to sell them continually below the regular list price. The assortment of mats made is the same as that which existed when the Government took 1069 over the prisons in 1878, and the mats are sold at approved rates fully equal to those of private makers. The mat-making is spread, as far as possible, over the whole range of the list; and though the demand regulates, to some extent, the quantity of each class of mats supplied, none of the 10 classes are neglected. Considering the rates paid for the labour, it does not appear that any injury is done to the employers of free labour by the jobbing of prison labour to certain mat-makers. Large reductions have, however, been made in the number of prisons where this work is carried on, and efforts are being made further to reduce the number. It is the case that a person who hires labour at four of Her Majesty's prisons was formerly an official attached to the Prison Service; but he left the Service nearly 30 years ago.