Page 73
BROADMOOR INQUIRY COMMITTEE
Members
Mr. J. Scott Henderson, Q.C. (Chairman).
Dr. P. K. McCowan, M.D., F.R.C.P., D.P.M.
Captain The Right Hon. C. Waterhouse, M.P.
The Right Hon. K. G. Younger, M.P.
Secretary-A. Forbes (Ministry of Health).
Assistant Secretary-Miss M. E. Gaffney (Ministry of Health).
Page 73
Page 73
72
REPORT OF THE BROADMOOR INQUIRY COMMITTEE
To the Right Honourable Iain Macleod, M.P.,
Sir,
Minister of Health.
1. We were appointed on 12th May, 1952, with the following terms of reference :-
"To inquire into the adequacy of the security arrangements at Broadmoor, and to make recommendations.”
2. We have held seven meetings at one of which we heard evidence in public from several Local Authorities. We also heard evidence in private at Broadmoor, in Reading and in London. We spent some eight hours at Broadmoor hearing evidence from various officers and making an inspec- tion of the Institution, and we desire to express our appreciation to Dr. Hopwood, the Medical Superintendent, for the help he gave us in our investigations. We have also considered letters and memoranda sent to us by various Local Authorities, organisations and persons. A list of the Government Departments, Local Authorities, organisations and persons who have submitted evidence, both written and oral, is given in Appendix I to this Report.
BACKGROUND
History and Control
3. Broadmoor was opened in 1863 as an asylum for criminal lunatics under the provisions of the Criminal Lunatic Asylums Act, 1860.
The following classes of persons can be ordered to be kept there by Warrant of one of Her Majesty's Principal Secretaries of State :-
(a) persons who can be ordered to be kept in safe custody during Her Majesty's pleasure. (These include any person charged with a criminal offence who is found insane on arraignment, or in respect of whom a jury has returned a special verdict that he was guilty of the act or omission charged against him but was insane at the time he did the act or made the omission);
(b) any person whom the Secretary of State may order under any Act
of Parliament to be removed to a mental hospital;
(c) any prisoner who before or after trial is certified to be insane.
4. Under the Criminal Lunatic Asylums Act, 1860, a criminal lunatic asylum was managed, and the treatment of the inmates was carried out, under the superintendence and direction of a Council of Supervision appointed by the Secretary of State. In the Criminal Justice Bill presented to Parliament by the Home Secretary in 1938, it was proposed to transfer the control and management of criminal lunatic asylums* to the Board of Control. We note in passing that the proposal was not opposed during the debates on the Bill
*There was, in fact, no criminal lunatic asylum, other than Broadmoor, in England and
Wales. Page 74 of 253
3