asked the Secretary of State for the Home Department if there are any women inspectors of prisons, women medical inspectors of prisons and women commissioners of prisons: and, in view of the very large number of women in various penal institutions, if he will make appointments of persons of their own sex to these positions?

There are no women holding the appointments referred to. A woman has been appointed governor of Aylesbury Borstal Institution, many women magistrates serve on the visiting committees of local prisons, and many women act as unofficial visitors to the women, 1,078 in number, in prisons and similar institutions.

Does not the right hon. Gentleman think that it is time, in respect of these positions of enormous responsibility, that women should be made equally responsible with men?

The difficulty is that there is no such equality between men and women prisoners; therefore we cannot very well make equal arrangements for a small number of women and a large number of men.