The battle for soft toilet paper

Civil servants were in a desperate battle to persuade government officials to provide softer toilet paper, newly released documents have revealed.

10:53 04 January 2005

Civil servants were in a desperate battle to persuade government officials to provide softer toilet paper, newly released documents have revealed.

Files released under the Freedom of Information Act showed how the Home Office was reluctant to move away from the older-style hard paper in the 1960s and 70s amid concerns that it would cost too much.

The file, which is now available for public perusal at the National Archives in west London, was opened in 1964 following an "unusual request" from a Dr John Hunt.

"A patient of mine has piles and he thinks that the government lavatory paper is out of date and extremely bad for his complaint," the doctor said.

"He has asked me if there is any chance of it being change to a softer type."

The Home Office refused, however, claiming it would cost an extra 130,000 a year to make civil servants' toilet experiences a little gentler.

In another bizarre revelation, a file from 1975 shows how the Home Office refused the producer of cult television show Porridge permission to film inside a real jail.

Sydney Lotterby wanted to film three outdoor scenes at a real prison but was turned down on the grounds that the series was authentic enough already.

A prison request of a different nature occurred in 1969, when the then home secretary, James Callaghan, received a complaint from a John McVicar, who claimed he was being victimised by police.

McVicar was on the run from Durham jail at the time, but was caught 14 months later to complete his 25-year sentence for armed robbery and firearms offences.