HC Deb 16 October 1952 vol 505 c385
52. Mr. T. Reid

asked the Secretary of State for the Home Department what steps he is taking to secure priority for the finance, labour and materials needed to build, at once, the prisons required to relieve the overcrowding there and the consequent inefficiency in the service.

The Under-Secretary of State for the Home Department (Sir Hugh Lucas-Tooth)

There is no possibility of building at once enough new prisons to relieve the present overcrowding. The programme of new building already approved will start in 1953, and its development will not be retarded by limitations on capital investment. My right hon. Friend the Minister of Works, whose Department will be responsible for building the new prisons, has undertaken to urge these projects forward as much as he can. In the meantime, some relief is being sought by increasing the number of open institutions.

Mr. Mitchison

Has the hon. Gentleman considered that the maintenance of old and overcrowded prisons involves revenue expenses quite out of proportion to the cost of building new prisons in their place?

Sir H. Lucas-Tooth

I am well aware of that, but this is purely a financial question.