§ SIR CHARLES CAMERON (Glasgow, Bridgeton)I beg to ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department whether there are any and what regulations providing for the special medical examination of persons sentenced to flogging as to their fitness to undergo such punishment, before it is inflicted; whether the gaol 48 surgeon or any other officer has power to suspend or dispense with such a sentence, if in his opinion the constitution of the person sentenced to flogging is not fit to bear it; and what precautious are taken, and in whom is the duty vested to ascertain whether juvenile offenders sentenced to whipping are able to bear it without danger to health.
§ THE SECRETARY OF STATE FOR THE HOME DEPARTMENT (Sir M. WHITE RIDLEY,) Lancashire, BlackpoolRule 87 (Local Prisons Rules) directs that corporal punishment shall not be inflicted unless the medical officer has certified that the prisoner is in a fit condition to undergo the punishment. Rule 182 (1) also directs that before a prisoner is subjected to corporal punishment the medical officer shall examine him and certify whether or not he is fit for the punishment. Rule 182 (2) directs that the instructions of the medical officer for preventing injury to health by corporal punishment shall be obeyed. These rules apply also to juvenile offenders sentenced to whipping when such whipping is carried out by the prison authorities. Whippings administered by the police are subject to similar police regulations. The rules for convict prisons contain similar provisions to those in force in local prisons with respect to convicts ordered to be flogged for prison offences.