§ MR. HAZELL (Leicester)I beg to ask Mr. Attorney General whether his attention has been called to the statements of Mr. Justice Wright in charging the grand jury at the Derbyshire Assizes on the 11th instant, in reference to the detention of persons awaiting trial; whether he is aware that it appeared from the calendar before the Court that accused persons had 876 been detained for periods amounting in the aggregate to three years; that this was mainly due to justice's clerks being; ignorant of recent legislation which removed difficulties once existing with regard to bail; and that, in particular, a man was brought before Mr. Justice Wright charged with perjury, who had been ten weeks in prison awaiting trial, and the jury found him innocent; while in two other charges where persons were convicted of manslaughter they wore discharged because they had been three months in prison awaiting trial; and what action does the Government propose: to take to prevent similar occurrences in future.
§ THE ATTORNEY GENERAL (Sir ROBERT FINLAY, Inverness Burghs)My attention has been called to the remarks of Mr. Justice Wright at the Derbyshire Assizes. I understand that in discharging the grand jury the learned Judge modified these remarks in respect of two or three prisoners who had been offered bail before the magistrates and had refused it. There appears to be no doubt that there had been a good deal of detention before trial which might have been prevented, by the exercise of the power of the magistrates to grant bail, but I have not, been able to verify all the details stated in the second paragraph of the question. The Bail Act of 1898 was passed with the object of preventing unnecessary detention, and the Government have under consideration the propriety of taking steps to call the attention of justices' clerks to the provisions of this Act.