§ 23. Mr. Osborneasked the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he is aware that Sir Gerald Dobson, Recorder of the Central Criminal Court, recently regretted that a few strokes of the birch could not be given to two boys to bring them to their senses, and that other steps would have to be taken more costly to the country and less effective; and if he will make a further statement on corporal punishment for men and boys.
§ Mr. RentonThe evidence collected by the Departmental Committee on Corporal Punishment does not indicate that when flogging and birching were available as judicial penalties they had an especially effective influence as deterrents. Some of the more constructive methods of dealing with offenders which are now being developed are indicated in the recent White Paper on Penal Policy in a Changing Society.