§ MR. PICKERSGILL (Bethnal Green, S.W.)I beg to ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department whether, in accordance with the recommendation of the Departmental Committee on Prison Dietaries in 1898, a well-qualified and competent inspector of the food supplies of prisons has been appointed; and, if not, will he say why this recommendation has not been carried out.
§ THE SECRETARY OF STATE FOR THE HOME DEPARTMENT (Mr. GLADSTONE, Leeds, W.)As a result of the Report of the Dietaries Committee, stringent regulations were made for the inspection of the prisoners' food by the medical officer and the Visiting Committee of each prison, and in view of these regulations, and of the duty laid on the governor to ensure that the supplies received are of good quality, it was thought that the employment to secure the same object of a travelling inspector, who could visit each prison only at long intervals, would be not only unnecessary, but also harmful, as tending to lessen the responsibility of the officials on the spot. In this view I entirely concur.