§ MR. PICKERSGILL (Bethnal Green, S.W.)To ask the Secretary of State 2056 for the Home Department whether he is aware that in 1905 (the last year for which we have full statistics) 450 persons were detained in prison for twelve weeks and upwards before trial, and that of these thirty-one were acquitted; whether his attention has been drawn to the observations of Mr. Justice Bucknill, at the last Assizes at Carmarthen, on the acquittal of a young labourer tried before him, that he was almost horrified to find that the prisoner had been incarcerated for four months awaiting trial for a trivial theft; whether he is aware that another person was tried before the same Judge at the Assizes at Bristol who had been imprisoned awaiting trial for a similar period, and was discharged; and will he, as his circular letter to the Justices of August, 1906, has failed to produce the desired effect, instruct every governor of a goal to report to him at once each case in which a prisoner is committed charged with a trivial offence when a long time must elapse before trial, so that in suitable cases, by application being made for bail by the Director of Public Prosecutions, or otherwise, this state of affairs may be remedied.
(Answered by Mr. Secretary Gladstone.) I am aware of the figures mentioned, and have seen a newspaper report of one of the cases mentioned by the hon. Member. I would refer him to the Answers given by me to Questions in this House on 8th November, 1906, and 15th August, 1907. As he is aware, I have repeatedly brought to the notice of magistrates the importance of releasing prisoners on bail in proper cases, and have urged them to grant bail freely; but I fear that the suggestion made in the Question is not a practicable one. The Home Office is already overburdened with the duties which properly belong to it, and I am satisfied that it would do more harm than good if I attempted a general revision of the decisions of the Courts in matters in which they are in a much better position to judge of the circumstances than my Department can possibly be. I will make inquiry in the two cases mentioned in the hon. Member's Question, and endeavour to ascertain where the fault, if any, lies.