§ Mr. Prittasked the Home Secretary whether he is aware that the time rate for making mailbags in Maidstone Prison has recently been shortened from 25 minutes to 16, and subsequently raised to 20; that this is equivalent to a cut of 2½d. per week, or 31 per cent. of the maximum weekly wage; that the prisoners on this work have thereby been largely deprived of the money to buy tobacco; arid as this caused, or contributed to, discontent will he restore the time rates?
§ Sir J. AndersonThe earnings scheme is based on the principle that payment is made only if the amount of work done reaches a certain minimum standard. Separate standards have to be fixed for each type of work, and care has to be taken in each case not to make the standard so low that the reward can be earned without effort or so high as to leave industrious workers unrewarded. Sometimes it is necessary to revise the standard in the light of experience, and414W the inquiry which I made recently into the particular case to which the hon. and learned Gentleman refers showed that there had been no lack of care or consideration in fixing the standard for the particular job in question.