HC Deb 31 January 1989 vol 146 cc92-3W
Mr. Fearn

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what further progress has been made with respect to the recommendations of the Social Services Select Committee report on prison medical services.

Mr. Douglas Hogg

The Government welcomed the Select Committee's report and accepted in whole or in part the majority of the 58 recommendations it contained.

The accepted recommendations cover a wide range of subjects. Where it has been possible to deal with them quickly that has been done. Some by their very nature are susceptible of implementation only in the long-term. Advance on others is determined by the results of negotiations with the central Departments or in discussion with, or after deliberation by, appropriate professional bodies. In this last category I include the important subject of the training of prison medical officers, which will be reviewed in the light of a report being prepared by a working group under the chairmanship of the president of the Royal College of Physicians. Subject to those provisos, progress is being maintained.