MR. JUSTIN M'CARTHYI beg to ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, with reference to a question put to him on 30th June last, whether he can now communicate to the House the terms of the Report of the Departmental Committee, appointed so long ago as April, 1886, to inquire into the complaints of the Clerks in Her Majesty's Prisons?
§ THE SECRETARY OF STATE FOR THE HOME DEPARTMENT (Mr. MATTHEWS, Birmingham, E.)It is not usual to lay on the Table of the House the Report of a Departmental Committee on such a subject as that of the complaints of the Clerks in Her Majesty's Prisons, such a Report being of a confidential character. But I am able to inform the hon. Member that, with the 699 approval of the Treasury, I have been able to sanction an increase in the scale of pay, and a large addition to the number of the highest grade of Clerks and Storekeepers in Her Majesty's Prisons, by which a considerable improvement will be made in their position. I shall have no objection to laying on the Table of the House a statement of the changes that have been made if it is wished.