HC Deb 20 October 1966 vol 734 c72W
Mr. William Price

asked the Secretary of State for the Home Department on how many occasions corporal punishment has been used on prisoners for attacks on warders in each of the last five years.

Mr. Roy Jenkins

On three occasions in 1962, and on no occasion in any other year.

Mr. William Price

asked the Secretary of State for the Home Department what evidence he has that corporal punishment in prisons is not an effective deterrent.

Mr. Roy Jenkins

I have no conclusive evidence that corporal punishment in prisons is not an effective deterrent. But neither have I any conclusive evidence that it is.

In this case, as in others, a negative is not easily susceptible to evidential proof.