§ 17. Mr. Kitsonasked the Secretary of State for the Home Department on how many occasions in the last five years Members of Parliament have been refused permission by his Department to visit preventive detention centres, Borstal institutions and prisons in their own constituencies; for what reasons they have been refused; and if he will make a statement.
§ Miss BaconI can find no record of any refusal of permission for an hon. Member to visit a Prison Department establishment. On very rare occasions, when an hon. Member has asked to see a particular inmate and the inmate indi- 880 cated that he did not wish to be visited, his wishes have been respected.
§ Mr. KitsonI appreciate that that is quite reasonable, but is it not a fact that a bishop can visit a gaol in his diocese without permission and that a justice of the peace can visit a gaol in his area without permission? Does not this illustrate that it is unnecessary red tape that a Member of Parliament should have to write to the Department for permission to go round a gaol in his constituency?
§ Miss BaconIf there is a general desire on the part of hon. Members that the present arrangements should be looked at, we will certainly do so. Members have often thanked me for the way in which their visits to prisons have been facilitated. If an hon. Member wishes to visit a prison, it is of help for us to know, because we can often be of help to him in the visit which he is making.