APPROVED SCHOOLS AND REMAND HOMES (CORPORAL PUNISHMENT)

HC Deb 27 November 1947 vol 444 cc304-5W

43. Mr. Peter Freeman

asked the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many boys and girls separately were flogged in approved schools and remand homes during 1946; what was the average number of strokes given in each case; and the greatest number given in any one case of a boy and a girl; to what extent a record is kept of the reason of the punishment and what are the principal crimes.

Mr. Ede

Apart from canings (not exceeding two strokes on each hand) given for minor offences committed in the school-rooms of Approved Schools by boys or girls under fifteen, of which no central record is available, the information asked for is as follows:

	APPROVED SCHOOLS.	REMAND HOMES
	Number caned.	Average strokes given.	Greatest number of strokes given.	Number caned.	Average number of strokes given.	Greatest number of strokes given.
Boys	…	3,203	4.9	12	992	4	6
Girls*	…	18	2.9	6	—	—	—
* Note.—Corporal punishment may not be given to girls in Remand Homes or to girls aged over 14 Approved schools.

Particulars of punishments of this kind, including the reasons, are required to be entered in the appropriate record books in Approved Schools and Remand Homes. Quarterly returns are submitted to the Home Office. The principal offences in 1946, for which corporal punishment was given, were absconding and indiscipline.