§ 95. Mr. SNOWDENasked the Home Secretary if he can arrange that when conscientious objectors who have refused the Home Office scheme or who have been 307 refused exemption by the Central Tribunal are committed to prison a second time they may be put at once on C diet if they had earned that in their previous term of imprisonment?
§ The SECRETARY of STATE for the HOME DEPARTMENT (Mr. Herbert Samuel)If a person who is, or professes to be, a conscientious objector returns to prison in respect of the same sentence, he receives the diet to which he is entitled, reckoning from his first reception. If he is committed on a fresh sentence, he receives the diet laid down by the dietary rules. This is in accordance with the general practice, from which I do not feel able to depart. But the Prison Commissioners inform me that the health of these prisoners is carefully watched and the medical officers use their discretion in giving a special diet to any particular prisoner who needs it on medical grounds.