§ Mr. Mathersasked the Secretary of State for Scotland whether, in the case of the two ex-service men who were in receipt of disability pensions for war wounds and who died in the criminal lunatic asylum at Perth within the past seven years, it was because the burial grant was so small that these men were placed in paupers' graves; and will he state the amount paid by the prison authorities to the undertaker in respect of each funeral?
§ Mr. ElliotI think the hon. Member may be under a misapprehension about the payment of grants for burial. No such grant is payable by the Ministry of Pensions in the case of a man who died in the Criminal Lunatic Department whose death is not due to a pensionable disability. Of the two ex-service men who died in the Criminal Lunatic Department of Perth Prison during the past seven years and were buried at public expense, one only had been awarded a disability pension. As neither of the men died from pensionable disability and as the relatives did not arrange for burial, the Prisons Department for Scotland made the burial arrangements. The costs incurred were £2 7s. 6d. and£2 8s. respectively.