§ Ms. HarmanTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department (1) what is the annual budget within the prison service for the distribution of bibles to prisoners;
(2) how much of the annual budget within the prison service for the distribution of bibles to prisoners remained unspent at 1 January;
(3) if chaplains to Her Majesty's prisons are experiencing any difficulty in obtaining bibles to distribute to prisoners;
(4) whether the remainder of the annual budget within the prison service for the distribution of bibles to prisoners will be spent on the purposes for which it was originally allocated by 31 March.
§ Mr. Douglas HoggThe budget for the distribution of bibles to prisoners is reviewed annually. The amount allocated for this purpose in 1987–88 was £7,260. All of this was spent by 1 January 1988. It was hoped that a further sum could have been made available in the current financial year, but this was not possible because of other severe pressures on the prison Vote.
A small number of copies of the authorised version and the revised standard version (used by Roman Catholics) remain in stock, but all copies of the good news version of the bible have been distributed.