HC Deb 17 April 1896 vol 39 cc1168-9
MR. E. H. PICKERSGILL (Bethnal Green, S. W.)

I beg to ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department whether he can state the number of burglaries, housebreakings, and shopbreakings committed in the Metropolitan Police District, and in England and Wales respectively, during the year 1895?

THE SECRETARY OF STATE FOR THE HOME DEPARTMENT (Sir MATTHEW WHITE RIDLEY,) Lancashire, Blackpool

I am unable at present to give the hon. Member the information he asks for. All possible expedition is used in the preparation of the Returns for the Metropolitan Police District, but they will not, I am afraid, be completed before the end of July.

MR. PICKERSGILL

I beg to ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department whether his attention has been given to the repeated representations of the Commissioner of Police of the Metropolis, and of many chief constables, that the present mode of dealing with the large class of professional and dangerous criminals is totally inadequate; and whether he is prepared to attempt to give early effect to the recommendation of the recent Departmental Committee on Prisons that a new form of sentence should be placed at the disposal of the Judges, by which prisoners of this class should be segregated under special conditions for long periods of detention?

SIR MATTHEW WHITE RIDLEY

I am aware of the views expressed on the present mode of dealing with the large class of professional and dangerous criminals in the recent reports of the Commissioner of Police. The treatment of the habitual criminal is a question of the greatest importance, and I recently stated, in answer to a question of the hon. Member for Darlington, that I concurred in the view which is taken by the Prison Commissioners, and which I have laid before the House, of the recommendation of the Prison Committee on the point. As I informed the House yesterday, a Bill which deals with the treatment of one class of habitual criminals, the habitual criminal drunkard, is at present under my consideration, and I can promise the hon. Member that the whole question shall have my careful attention with the view to possible legislation in a subsequent Session in the direction indicated by the Prison Committee.