§ Lord TREFGARNEMy Lords, I beg leave to ask the Question which stands in my name on the Order Paper.
§ The Question was as follows:
§ To ask Her Majesty's Government whether they have any statement to make in respect of the findings of the European Court on Human Rights concerning the application by Mr. Golder.
§ Lord WELLS-PESTELLMy Lords, with the Secretaries of State for Scotland and for Northern Ireland, my right honourable friend the Home Secretary has agreed to give effect to the ruling by abolishing the requirement for inmates of Prison Service establishments to petition for permission to engage in civil proceedings. Administrative arrangements have already been made in England and Wales and in Scotland, and will shortly be promulgated in Northern Ireland also, to allow any inmate to seek legal advice about taking civil legal proceedings. Subject to the availability of funds for that purpose, the inmate can then take such proceedings; provided that, where the proposed proceedings concern the administration of establishments, the complaint has first been ventilated through the normal internal channels to give management an opportunity to provide a remedy. In the case of England and Wales, amendments to the Prison Rules will be laid before Parliament. I understand that no amendment to the Rules in Scotland or Northern Ireland is necessary.
§ Lord TREFGARNEMy Lords, I am very grateful to the noble Lord for his reply, which I must say is much more 812 helpful than I had expected. Can the noble Lord say whether the Government in general feel themselves bound by any decisions of the European Court on Human Rights which refer to them, or whether it is simply in this case that they have been specially concerned?
§ Lord WELLS-PESTELLMy Lords, the noble Lord will know that the appeal court, when it made its decision, held that countries are bound to Article No. 6 and, in certain respects, Article No. 8 and it is the intention of Her Majesty's Government to abide by the decision.
§ Lord HAILSHAM of SAINT MARYLEBONEMy Lords, in order to avoid further proceedings against Her Majesty's Government, would the noble Lord pass on to Mr. Foot the request that he should make his unemployment regulations conform with the European Convention and with the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in so far as they are likely to apply to the Ferry bridge six?
§ Lord BYERSMy Lords, is the noble Lord the Lord Privy Seal preventing the Minister from answering?
§ The LORD PRIVY SEAL (Lord Shepherd)Certainly, my Lords, because the noble and learned Lord must be well aware that the supplementary question hardly arose from the original Question on the Order Paper.