MR. CARVELL WILLIAMS (Notts, Mansfield)I beg to ask the Under Secretary of State for the Home Department whether the Prison Commissioners have lately issued a circular to the chairmen of prison visiting com- 137 mittees, stating that the Commissioners desire to encourage mission services and religious addresses in prisons, and that they have framed rules for their regulation; whether these rules provide that, while moral or religious addresses may be delivered by members of other religious bodies, missions can be authorised only when they are under the auspices of the Established Church or of organisations connected with it; what is the ground for the distinction; and, will the Home Secretary make such representations to the Prison Commissioners as will lead to its abandonment.
§ MR. COLLINGSThe answer to the first two paragraphs is in the affirmative. The circular is, in the opinion of the Secretary of State, in accordance with the Prison Act, 1865, which contemplates that the services in prison chapels shall be those of the Established Church, but makes provision for prisoners of other denominations being specially attended by ministers of their own persuasion. This appears to the Secretary of State to justify the distinction which has been made between religious services or missions and addresses. There has been, and is, however, no objection to the delivery of moral or religious addresses in the prison chapels, subject to the approval of the visiting committee.