§ MR. J. G. WEIRI beg to ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether his attention has been called to the Seventeenth Annual Report of the Prison Commissioners for Scotland, in which it is stated that as regards the few female convicts still in custody (28 in all) many of them are old women, more fit for treatment in a poor house than in an institution for inflicting penal servitude; whether he has made any inquiry into the matter; and whether any steps are to be taken for transferring these women from the prison to the poor house?
§ THE LORD ADVOCATEMy attention has been called to the statement referred to by the hon. Member. I may mention that the procedure in the case of convicts in Scottish Prisons is the same as that followed by the Home Office, namely, that each case is, on medical or other grounds, brought before the Secretary for Scotland from time to time for consideration as to revision of sentence. I have made inquiry and am informed by the Prison Commissioners that by the operation of the ordinary law and existing procedure, the number of 28 831 mentioned in the question has now fallen to 20. The Secretary for Scotland considers, therefore, that these cases are properly dealt with under the present procedure.