§ Mr. WARDLEasked the Secretary of State for the Home Department whether the officer whose case he referred to on 4th May was removed from a position of responsibility for refusing to punish prisoners for disobeying a regulation which has since been withdrawn; whether his request at the time for inquiry to be made at other prisons was ignored; and whether, seeing that by a circular issued in November of last year it is stated that the Secretary of State approved of certain privileges to prisoners, one of which was the right to use without remonstrance the utensil for the use of which the officer in question had refused to punish them, and in view of the public service rendered by the officer in securing the abolition of an inhuman punishment, he will restore him to his former rank and allow him compensation for the hardships he has endured?
§ The SECRETARY of STATE for the HOME DEPARTMENT (Mr. H. Gladstone)The answer to each of the questions is in the negative. The hon. Member has been misinformed. The reasons for the reduction in rank of the officer in question were not connected with the matter to which the hon. Member refers. The references to the withdrawal of a regulation and the abolition of an alleged punishment are not in accordance with the facts.