§ MR. WILLOXI beg to ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether, of all civil servants, prison warders are alone in not being allowed holidays on Christmas Day, 734 Good Friday, and Bank Holidays: and, whether he will give instructions that, as far as practicable, these public servants shall have the Bank Holidays or, where this is impossible owing to the exigencies of the service, they shall be allowed at convenience other days' holidays in lieu thereof?
§ THE SECRETARY OF STATE FOR THE HOME DEPARTMENT (Sir MATTHEW WHITE RIDLEY, Lancashire, Blackpool)I am not aware that it is the case that all civil servants with the exception of prison warders are allowed these holidays. Christmas Day and Good Friday are treated as Sunday in the prisons, and as a consequence half the staff are on leave on both those days. No other arrangement is possible without an increase of staff, which could not, I think be justified, in view of the amount of leave already allowed to these officers.