§ Baroness MACLEOD of BORVEMy 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 when it is intended to start community service orders in the Edmonton petty sessional division.
§ Lord WELLS-PESTELLMy Lords, it is for individual probation and after-care committees to decide, subject to my right honourable friend's approval of the general arrangements proposed, when to introduce community service arrangements to particular petty sessional areas. The Middlesex probation and after-care committee have indicated that they are not yet in a position to propose a date for extending community service arrangements to Edmonton.
§ Baroness MACLEOD of BORVEMy Lords, I thank the noble Lord for his reply. May I ask him whether he is aware that seven out of the eight petty sessional divisions in Middlesex are able to make community service orders, and that it is the opinion not only of all the magistrates in the Edmonton petty sessional division, but also of the Probation Service, that perhaps the Edmonton division needs community service orders more than any other petty sessional division within Middlesex? We have five courts sitting on five days a week and have an enormous case load, and I have it on the very highest authority that a number of people who are now in prison could have been provided for by community service orders if they had been available.
§ Lord WELLS-PESTELLMy Lords, what the noble Baroness has said rather indicates that it is for people in Edmonton—the probation officers and the magistrates, to whom she has made reference—to bring pressure upon the Middlesex probation and after-care committee. What she says about the other areas in Middlesex being provided for in relation to community service orders is perfectly true. But, if I may say so with the greatest respect, I think that the matter is in the hands of justices and others in Edmonton, who can bring some kind of pressure to bear upon the probation and after-care committee.
§ Baroness MACLEOD of BORVEMy Lord, is the noble Lord aware that there is a difference of opinion between the Home Office and the Greater London Council, and that it seems to me to be the Greater London Council who are holding this up, because they will not allow us to have another office? Can the noble Lord do anything in his power to see that the other office is supplied as soon as possible?
§ Lord WELLS-PESTELLMy Lords, all I can say at this stage is that we are under the impression that arrangements in relation to community service orders in Edmonton will come into being during the latter part of this year. I do not think I can go beyond that at this stage.