§ Mr. Nicholas Edwardsasked the Secretary of State for the Home Department whether he will make a statement about the recruitment of prison governors.
§ Mr. R. CarrI have now received and considered the report of a working party set up by the right hon. Member for Cardiff, South-East (Mr. Callaghan). The report contains a number of recommendations designed to improve the methods of selecting and training serving prison officers who have potential for promotion to the governor grades. The report also recommends that, for an experimental period of four years, all successful candidates under the age of 24 entering the governor grades through the annual open competition should be required to serve as prison officers for about a year. I have accepted all the recommendations in this report and I hope that, as a result, an increasing proportion of appointments to the governor grades will be made from those who have had practical experience of service in the ranks. I am placing copies of the report in the Library.