§ Mr. TOUCHEasked the Home Secretary whether persons confined in criminal lunatic asylums are allowed to see legal advisers and private doctors?
§ Mr. McKENNAIf sufficient occasion arises for a visit from a legal adviser, the visit would be allowed. The patients are under the care of the highly qualified medical staff of the asylum, and a consultation with a private medical practitioner would not be necessary save in wholly exceptional circumstances.
§ Mr. TOUCHEasked (1) whether, in the Broadmoor criminal lunatic prison, parts of prisoners' letters to friends are erased by the prison authorities because they are contrary to the regulations; whether copies of the regulations are posted up in the prison or supplied to the prisoners; and (2) whether letters written to their relatives and friends by prisoners in the Broadmoor criminal lunatic prison are sometimes stopped, while prisoners are left to understand that they have been dispatched?
§ Mr. McKENNALetters from lunatics are sometimes quite unfit to send out of the asylum, and have to be stopped or partially erased. It must be a matter for the discretion of the medical officers having charge of lunatics to decide when this has 1969W to be done. No regulations could be laid down defining the circumstances which render such a course necessary, but the regulations require all letters so stopped to be laid before the council of supervision of the asylum at their next meeting.
§ Mr. TOUCHEasked whether the tradesmen who supply goods to the criminal lunatic asylums are summoned on coroner's juries in respect of deceased prisoners; and do the same persons frequently act?
§ Mr. McKENNAThe summoning of jurors for an inquest at a criminal lunatic asylum is a matter for the coroner, and I have no information as to the manner in which they are selected.