Prison Act 1952

18 Corporal punishment in prisons

(1) Except as provided by this section, corporal punishment shall not be inflicted in any prison.

(2) Rules made under section forty-seven of this Act may authorise the infliction of corporal punishment for mutiny, incitement to mutiny, or gross personal violence to an officer of a prison when committed by a male person serving a sentence of imprisonment, corrective training or preventive detention.

(3) The rules shall not authorise the infliction of corporal punishment except by order of the visiting committee or board of visitors, as the case may be, made at a meeting at which not more than five nor less than three members, at least two being justices of the peace, are present; and no such order shall be made except after an inquiry in which the evidence is given on oath:

Provided that the Secretary of State may, if he thinks fit in any particular case, direct that the functions exercisable as aforesaid by the visiting committee or board of visitors shall be exercised by a metropolitan police magistrate or stipendiary magistrate appointed in that behalf.

(4) The punishment which may be inflicted under such an order as aforesaid shall not exceed—

(a) in the case of a person appearing to the visiting committee or board of visitors or magistrate to be not less than twenty-one years of age, eighteen strokes of a cat-o'-nine-tails or birch rod ; or

(b) in the case of a person appearing to them or him to be under that age, twelve strokes of a birch rod ;

and if corporal punishment is inflicted, no further punishment by way of confinement in cells or restricted diet shall be imposed.

(5) Where an order for the infliction of corporal punishment has been made under this section, a copy of the notes of the evidence given at the inquiry, a copy of the order and a statement of the grounds on which it was made shall forthwith be given to the Secretary of State; and the order shall be carried into effect only after confirmation by the Secretary of State, and, if the Secretary of State confirms the order with modifications, in accordance with the modifications.

(6) A refusal by the Secretary of State to confirm such an order as aforesaid shall not prejudice any power to impose another punishment for the offence for which the order was made.