§ 17. Sir THOMAS BRAMSDONasked the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will adopt the suggestion to which reference is made by the Departmental Committee on the training, appointment, and payment of probation officers, and give early consideration to the question of the co-ordination of after-care work for juvenile offenders and young prisoners, with a view to the establishment of a central organisation to encourage the co-operation of authorities, societies, and committees concerned, to reduce the overlapping of visiting and inquiry, and to arrive at a standard system of records which would be available for the information of each agency concerned?
§ The SECRETARY of STATE for the HOME DEPARTMENT (Mr. Shortt)The suggestion will be borne in mind, but I do not feel able to take any action at the present time.
§ 18. Sir T. BRAMSDONasked the Home Secretary if he proposes to adopt the recommendation of the Departmental Committee on the training, appointment, and payment of probation officers and to appoint a Central Advisory Committee to assist the Department concerned with probation; if so, whether, in view of the limited nature of the Departmental Committee's recommendations as to the training of officers, the supervision of their work, and the keeping of records, and of the growing importance of probation work generally, he will take early action 214 as to the appointment of this Committee with adequate representation from the provinces in addition to representation from the Metropolitan area; and will he say whether he will permit members of the Advisory Committee to initiate discussion on questions connected with-probation without limiting them, as is suggested in the Report, to the consideration of matters referred to them?
§ Mr. SHORTTThe answer to each part of the question is in the affirmative.