§ 72. Mr. Sorensenasked the Secretary of State for the Colonies if he will now give further information in respect of the inquiry into the prevalence of corporal punishment inflicted for offences committed in the Colonies; and to what extent the frequency of this punishment is now to be drastically modified.
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Mr. DugdaleThe Colonial Social Welfare Advisory Committee over which my hon. Friend the Under-Secretary of State presided at their meeting on 3rd May had before them the results of the review of corporal punishment made by the Treatment of Offenders Sub-Committee which included a draft circular despatch submitted to the main Committee for approval.
This Committee recommended to me that a despatch on the general lines of the draft circulated to them should be sent to Colonial Governments. I am in agreement with their views and propose to address Governors in this sense and to emphasise the need for bringing to an end within measurable time the use of whipping or flogging. I shall recommend the restriction of the award of corporal punishment to the High Court, the reduction of offences for which corporal punishment may be awarded to adults by the Court to those of assault upon the person in which brutality plays a part, the provision of alternatives to corporal punishment in the case of juveniles, the extension of these limitations to awards by native courts, and the restriction of corporal punishment for prison offences to the three offences for which it may be ordered in this country.