§ MR. FLOWER (Bradford, W.)To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he can state the number of cranks, tread wheels, and other forms of unproductive labour at present in use in His Majesty's prisons.
(Answered by Mr. Secretary Akers Douglas.) All tread wheels were abolished as a means of labour in His Majesty's prisons as from 1st April, 1902, and there are no cranks or other forms of unproductive labour now in use. At five prisons the machinery of wheels and cranks is still in use as a means of pumping water or flushing drains, but employment on this duty is for ordinary prison service and is no longer a prescribed form of hard labour.