HC Deb 27 July 1908 vol 193 c880
MR. CARR-GOMM (Southwark, Rotherhithe)

I beg to ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department whether he is now able to state the result of his inquiry into the case of the shipment of bales of prison registers and other confidential documents from Hull to London and from London to Bordeaux, which was discovered by the bursting of a bale on a ship lying in the Thames during the first week of May.

MR. HERBERT SAMUEL

I find that the bale in question was part of a consignment of waste paper which was removed from Wakefield Prison by a firm which has a contract with the Wakefield Post Office for the removal of their waste paper. I regret to find that no stipulation that the paper should be treated as confidential had, in this case, been made by the prison authorities. In future, all records of prisoners and other confidential papers will be destroyed or obliterated in the prison. The Secretary of State is obliged to my hon. friend for drawing his attention to the matter.