HC Deb 04 May 1903 vol 121 c1187
MR. GUTHRIE (Tower Hamlets, Bow)

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department whether he is aware that convicts called as witnesses receive the ordinary prison diet whilst in attendance at the Courts of Justice; and whether, considering the strain to which they are subjected by prolonged cross-examination, he can take steps to revise the prison regulations in this respect.

(Answered by Mr. Secretary Akers-Douglas.) The case can be met without altering the existing rules. I have authorised the governors of prisons to arrange that convicts giving evidence in a court of law shall be allowed some special addition to their diet if, in the particular circumstances, the ordinary diet is insufficient.