§ 30. Mr. Dribergasked the Secretary of State for the Home Department what progress has been made in the consideration of the problem of enabling prisoners to earn adequate wages for work done 82W while they are serving their sentences, thus to contribute, in appropriate cases, to compensation for the victims of their crimes and also to leave prison with some money saved and with fully stamped National Insurance cards.
§ Mr. BrookeValuable experience is being obtained from the prison hostel scheme, in which prisoners who go out to work for outside employers receive ordinary wages from which deductions are made for National Insurance contributions and the maintenance of the prisoner and his dependants. In the prisons themselves, I am sure that the first priority is to improve the productivity of prison industries on the lines recommended by my Advisory Council in its report on "Work for Prisoners", published in August, 1961. I attach great importance to this; and it is regrettable that progress has been hampered by the steep increase in the prison population.