§ 20. Mr. Haleasked the Secretary of State for the Home Department whether he will arrange to have a copy of the Income Tax (Repayment of Post-War Credits) Act placed in the Library of Strangeways Prison, Manchester.
§ Mr. RentonNo, Sir; but a prisoner would be allowed to obtain a copy of the Act, and of the regulations made under it, if he wanted them.
§ Mr. HaleIs the hon. and learned Gentleman aware that Mr. Jack Cromwell, of 20, Osborne Street, Oldham, who is alleged to owe £4 9s. 3d. Income Tax and to whom the Chancellor of the Exchequer owes £50 in post-war credits, is threatened with being sent to Strangeways, the case having been adjourned for an application to balance his post-war credits, which has been refused; that he may be in prison in about ten days' time; that he asked his missus why he was going there and his missus thought it was daft; that I said I thought it was daft; and that I have since found out that my missus thinks it was daft? Will the Joint Under-Secretary speak to the Chancellor and get him to say that he thinks this is daft before the man is sent to prison, or, if not, will he let the chap find out why he is there and who put him there and for what reason?
§ Mr. RentonThe hon. Gentleman places me in some difficulty, because his 634 Question relates to copies of a document being placed in Strangeways Prison, Manchester. But Cromwell, the man to whom he has referred in his supplementary question, is not in Strangeways. In fact, I think the only relevant thing is that he appears to be a constituent of the hon. Gentleman. In any event, the payment of post-war credits is a matter for my right hon. Friend the Chancellor of the Exchequer, and the administration of any part of the penal law is a matter for the court in question.