§ DR. CLARKI beg to ask the Secretary to the Treasury whether it is the case that the surgeons of Northampton Prison with a daily population of 104 and commitments of 1,140, and Shrewsbury Prison with a daily population of 95 and commitments of 1,290, each receive a salary of £110 per annum, while the surgeons at Dundee Prison with a daily population of 109 and commitments of 3,560, and of Ayr Prison with a daily population of 70 and commitments of 1,750, receive respectively £80 and £70 per annum; why the salary of the Ayr Prison surgeon has been reduced; and under what rules are these salaries determined?
SIR. J. GORSTI have no information to enable me to check the accuracy, or otherwise, of the numbers quoted. The salary at Ayr was recently revised on the death of the former surgeon so as to correspond more closely to the present scale at other prisons in Scotland. The salaries of prison surgeons in Scotland who do not give their whole time to the public are fixed, as far as possible, with reference to the number of commitments and daily average number of prisoners at the time when the surgeons are 1648 appointed, a maximum of £80 being fixed in accordance with the recommendation of a Committee which sat in 1879.
SIR J. GORSTThe hon. Gentleman will get better information from my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for the Home Department; but if he will give me notice of his question I will procure the information for him.