§ Mr. Wheelerasked the Secretary of State for the Home Department when the dietary scale for feeding prison inmates was last reviewed; and whether the scale is in accordance with current nutritional standards.
§ Mr. BrittanThe dietary scale for the inmates of penal establishments in England and Wales was reviewed by a prison department working party last year. The review showed that the diet was on the whole satisfactory but that some minor changes could usefully be made to the scale to make the food more palatable and to bring the scale into line with the recommendations of the "Report of the National Advisory Committee on Nutrition Education 1983" and the "Report on Diet and Cardiovascular Disease" issued by the Committee on Medical Aspects of Food Policy. Copies of the working party's report have been placed in the Library. Arrangemens are in hand to bring the new scale into use later this year.