§ 2. Mr. Haleasked the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many persons were, at the most recent convenient date, confined in prisons in England and Wales for non-compliance with orders of the court directing payment of debts, rates, affiliation or maintenance orders.
§ Major Lloyd-GeorgeOn the night of Monday, 11th June, 1956, 39 men were in prison for non-payment of debts, five men and one woman for non-payment of rates, 69 men for failure to comply with affiliation orders, and 582 men and four women for failure to comply with maintenance orders including orders for the maintenance of children under the Children and Young Persons Act, 1933, and the Guardianship of Infants Acts, the totals being 695 men and five women.
§ Mr. HaleI will study those figures. Is the right hon. and gallant Gentleman aware that, here again, the Scottish system is apparently better than ours? Will he have a look at the whole question, because it is quite clear that we do imprison for debt, and it is by no means always clear that there is the most careful investigation of the man's circumstances at the time when the order is made?
§ Major Lloyd-GeorgeThe Advisory Council on the Treatment of Offenders has been asked to look at this very question.