§ MR. BYLES (Salford, N.)To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, are there any Returns showing the extent to which the practice of flogging prevails in His Majesty's prisons and reformatories; and would legislation be necessary to put an end to this form of punishment.
(Answered by Mr. Secretary Gladstone.) Full particulars of all cases of corporal punishment in prisons are given in the Annual Report of the Prison Commissioners. There is no corporal punishment in inebriate reformatories, and in juvenile reformatories only moderate chastisement with the birch rod is allowed. Corporal punishment in prisons is expressly authorised by an Act of Parliament, which could only be repealed by legislation.