§ 26. Mr. Royleasked the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will abandon the proposal to provide a junior and a senior detention centre for the North of England in 1957–58 and use any available funds for the provision of remand centres under the Criminal Justice Act, 1948.
§ Major Lloyd-GeorgeNo, Sir. Apart from considerations of policy, the cost of one remand centre would be so much greater than the cost of two detention centres, that no useful purpose would be served by such a course.
§ Mr. RoyleBut would not the right hon. and gallant Gentleman agree that detention centres were regarded as experimental, and will he not await the Report of the Committee on Children and Young Persons before he opens any more? If the Home Secretary has money to spare in his Estimates, would it not be much better to spend it on remand centres, for which there is such a tremendous demand?
§ Major Lloyd-GeorgeI agree, but there is a queue and we have to judge where the place should be in the queue. The fact remains that one remand centre, the smallest, would cost about £400,000 and the largest about £700,000 and that we could probably get two detention centres from converted houses for about £150,000. I am anxious to get two more to complete the scheme, which would serve the North of England, and that is very important.