§ Lord Lester of Herne Hillasked Her Majesty's Government:
Whether the "prior ventilation rule", whereby prisoners could not complain to Members of Parliament or legal advisers about prison treatment until they had ventilated their complaints through normal internal channels, was abolished, with effect from 1st December 1981, so as to give effect to the report of the European Human Rights Commission and the judgment of the European Court of Human Rights in Silver and Others v United Kingdom; and, if not, what was the reason for abolishing that rule.
§ Baroness BlatchResponsibility for this matter has been delegated to the Director General of the Prison service, who has been asked to arrange for a reply to be given.
Letter to Lord Lester of Herne Hill from the Director General of the Prison Service, Mr. Richard Tilt.
Lady Blatch has asked me to reply to your recent Question about the "prior ventilation rule".
This rule, whereby prisoners were prohibited from expressing their grievances to Members of Parliament or legal advisers until they had ventilated their complaint through internal channels and received a definitive reply, was abolished on 1st December 1981. This followed the report of the European Commission on Human Rights in Silver and Others v UK in 1980 (the Court did not affirm this until 1983). The change was brought about by an amendment to Prison Service Standing Order 5, copies of which were made available to prisoners in their prison libraries.
Present guidance on the expression of grievances and on letters to Members of Parliament and legal advisers is contained in a revised Standing Order 5 and in the manual "Prisoners' Requests/Complaints 116WA Procedures". Copies of both publications are available to prisoners and are also held in the Library of the House.