HC Deb 09 February 1891 vol 350 cc213-4
COLONEL NOLAN (Galway, N.)

I beg to ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he could state (approximately) in how many instances during the past ten years have the periods spent in prison before trial been allowed to reckon in commutation of sentences, either by the Judge taking into account the time which the prisoner had remained in custody before trial or by the Home Secretary permitting the period of detention previous to trial to reckon as a portion of the sentence?

MR. MATTHEWS

There is no information in the possession of the Home Office which would enable me to give a statistical answer to this question. The calendars which are supplied in every case to Judges of Assize, Chairmen of Quarter Sessions, and Recorders of Boroughs, give the date when each prisoner is committed for trial, and the Secretary of State assumes that the Judge, in passing sentence, takes this previous imprisonment into account, and does not therefore regard it as affording grounds for alleviation of sentence when the case comes under review at the Home Office.

COLONEL NOLAN

Has the right hon. Gentleman, within the last ten years, ever remitted a portion of a sentence on this account?

MR. MATTHEWS

Previous imprisonment is always taken into consideration.

COLONEL NOLAN

I am asking about a fact, and the right hon. Gentleman is answering about the state of the mind of the Home Secretary, of which I wish to know nothing. Has the right hon. Gentleman himself ever done it?

MR. MATTHEWS

Personally it has not fallen within my province.