HC Deb 23 May 1944 vol 400 cc585-6W
Mr. Thorne

asked the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he can give any information about the state of Dartmoor prison; if he has considered the comments of Mr. Tom Collan, the chairman of the Prison Officers' Association, at the Liverpool Conference, a copy of which has been sent to him; and with what result.

Mr. Peake

The Prison Officers Association are about to submit to arbitration a claim for an increased allowance to compensate prison officers for the disadvantages of living and working at Dartmoor. The nature and degree of these disadvantages will, therefore, be a subject for argument before the arbitrator, and it would, I think, be better for me to refrain at this stage from comments onex parte statements by one of the parties to the arbitration.