§ MR. LAWSON (St. Pancras, W.)I beg to ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department why the distinction between first-class and second-class clerks in Her Majesty's Prisons have not been abolished, and their annual increment increased from. £5 to £7 10s., in accordance with the recommendation made by the Committee of Accounts, whose authority he quoted on this subject?
§ THE SECRETARY OF STATE TOE THE HOME DEPARTMENT (Mr. MATTHEWS,) Birmingham, E.The hon. Member professes to quote from a Report of a confidential nature, of which he can have no knowledge in any authentic or authorised way. The recommendations are not accurately quoted, and even if they were, it would not be usual that I should give reasons for acting or not acting upon them. I have stated generally, in reply to a question of the 8th December last, the results that had followed from the recommendations of the Committee in question. I have nothing to add to that answer.