HC Deb 21 November 1947 vol 444 cc229-30W
Mr. Boyd-Carpenter

asked the Secretary of State for the Home Department the average daily calory value of the diet consumed at the latest convenient date by the inmates of His Majesty's prisons specifying any differences that there may be in the cases of different classes of prisoners.

Mr. Ede

The overall average calorific value of prison diets on 14th November, 1947, was 2,712. The figures for the various classes of prisoners are as follows:—

Local Prisons:
Men 2,860
Women 2,510
Boys 2,957
Girls 2,510
Convict Prisons:
Men 2,925
Women 2,510

In comparing the figure of 2,712 with the average for the whole population of 2,700 it must be remembered that 80 per cent. of the prison population consists of males engaged on manual labour, and that the calorific value of the diet of an ordinary industrial worker, including unrationed foods and rations provided to canteens, would be substantially above the figure of 2,700.