§ MR. WARDLE (Stockport)I beg to ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department whether he is aware that the average hours of duty of warders in. convict prisons, reckoned on the basis of a working week of six days and calculated from the figures given in the official standing orders, are eleven hours-ten minutes per day exclusive of meal times; and whether, it view of this fact, he will take steps to remedy the grievance by creating a third division of warders to relieve the duties of the existing staff.
§ MR. GLADSTONEThe longest average hours of duty of warders in convict prisons reckoned on the basis of a working fortnight of twelve days and calculated as above are ten hours thirty-three minutes. It is impossible to give an average reckoned on a weekly basis, as the hours vary in alternate weeks. The Directors have not heard of any alleged grievance.