§ MR. BOTTOMLEY (Hackney, S.)I beg to ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department whether his attention has been called to the number of cases in which persons are kept in prison for long periods before being brought to trial; whether he is aware that, according to the judicial statistics for 1904, eighteen persons were acquitted after having been kept in prison for several months before trial; and whether he will take any steps to remedy this state of things.
§ MR. GLADSTONEI have had under my consideration the statistics to which the hon. Member refers, and have consulted the Lord Chancellor and the Lord Chief Justice with regard to the long delay which occasionally occurs before prisoners can be tried. The result was that in August last I issued a circular strongly urging on magistrates the importance of granting bail more freely in proper cases to prisoners committed for trial.