§ MR. TREVELYAN (Yorkshire W.R., Elland)To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department whether any alterations have been made in the conditions inserted in notices and contracts by the Home Office since the Return given in Parliamentary Paper, No. 277, of Session 1906, pages 128–129, Appendix No. 1 CD.; and, if so, what the alterations are.
§ (Answered by Mr. Secretary Gladstone.) As regards Return C (Prison Department), no alteration has up to the present time been made. As regards Return D (Metropolitan Police), the following alterations have been made, viz.: No. 1.— Building contract. The contractors are now required to exhibit at their workshops, etc., a copy of an extract from the Resolution of the House of Commons of 13th February, 1891, with regard to workmen's wages. The wages are not now specified in building contracts, but it is stipulated that current wages are to be paid. No. 2.—The repairs contract stipulates that the above notice be exhibited, and a minimum table of wages has to be quoted. No. 5.—The boot contract no longer exists, a money allowance having been sanctioned in lieu of boots as from 935 October, 1897. No. 8.—The new clothing contract stipulates for the exhibition of the above-quoted notice, also that the current wages for competent workers be paid. The receiver has power, instead of imposing penalty, to determine the contract if work is not done in the contractors own factory, and if the current scale of wages is not paid. The penalty in the helmet contract has been reduced to £50, but the clause for determination of contract has been added, and a stipulation inserted that the copy of the Resolution above referred to be exhibited. No. 14. Clocks; No. 15. Candles and soap; No. 16. Forage; No. 20. Coals and coke; No. 21. Sale of old clothing.—Power is now reserved to the receiver of determining the contract if the contractor shall fail to pay such wages as are generally accepted as current for competent work people. I may add that it has been decided to insert in the prison clothing contract a clause prohibiting home work, as in the police clothing contract.