asked the Secretary of State for the Home Department whether he will hold consultations with the Prison Officers' Association with regard to housing priority on retirement from the service, in view of the present unsatisfactory position.

I sympathise with prison officers, as I do with officers of other services, who have difficulty in finding a house on retirement. My right hon. Friend is, of course, ready to consider any proposals which the Prison Officers' Association wish to put forward, but it would be wrong to hold out hope of any easy solution of this problem.