§ MR. LEIF JONESTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department whether he will state the total cost of the prisons of England and Wales, both county and national, including therein interest on capital expenditure, annual charges for maintenance and pensions, the expenses of the Prison Commissioners, and the proportion of this expenditure borne by local and national funds.
(Answered by Mr. Secretary Gladstone.) The total cost of the prisons of England and Wales, including State inebriate reformatories, for the year ended 31st March last, for salaries and maintenance, is £722,396 3s. 9d. There are no charges for interest on capital expenditure. The whole of this expenditure falls on Imperial funds. The annual charge on the Superannuation Vote on account of Prisons, England and Wales, was on the 30th instant, £83,736 1s. 10d. In addition to this, some £500 to £600 is paid each year in gratuities to retired prison officers who are ineligible for pension. These charges also fall on Imperial funds; but local funds bear a certain pension charge in respect of men who were in the prison service before 1878, and have since retired. It is, however, impossible to state exactly how much this charge is. It is now comparatively small.