§ Mr. Lansburyasked the Home Secretary whether he will consider instructing the Prison Commissioners to issue travelling vouchers to discharged prisoners on forms containing no reference to prisons, Prison Commissioners, or numbers, and which will in no way reveal the fact that the holder has been in prison, in order to prevent any possibility of the person using the pass or voucher being handicapped in his efforts to obtain work or being ashamed to use the pass?
§ Sir S. HoareThe voucher issued to a prisoner on discharge is not carried by him on his journey by rail. It is merely presented by the holder at the booking-office at the station of departure, and an ordinary ticket is issued in exchange for it. There is therefore nothing to show, either on the journey or on arrival, that the passenger is an ex-prisoner. It is necessary for accounting purposes that the voucher itself should show that the fare is to be reclaimed from the Prison Commissioners, but there seems to be no possibility of the prisoner to whom it was issued being thereby handicapped in any way.