HC Deb 25 October 1956 vol 558 cc800-2
8. Mr. Fenner Brockway

asked the Secretary of State for the Home Department if, in view of the case of which particulars have been sent to him and of similar cases, he will make provision for persons under twenty-one years of age to be sent to remand homes instead of prisons when ordered to be kept in custody prior to being sentenced.

Major Lloyd-George

Young persons under seventeen years of age are normally detained in remand homes, but there is no power to send young persons of seventeen and over to these homes which, in any event, are not suitably staffed or organised for their reception. I share the hon. Member's anxiety that this older group should also be kept out of prison, and I hope ultimately to provide remand centres for their detention, but the cost of building these centres will be heavy, and I cannot at the moment say when it will be possible to make a start.

Mr. Brockway

Without wishing to prejudice a young person by identifying him with this specific case, may I ask the right hon. and gallant Gentleman whether he is aware that at present young persons still at school on a first charge can be sent to prison on remand for a period and, in a particular case, at the end of the week discharged? Will the Home Secretary not try to do something to prevent this possibility of the contamination in prison of such young persons?

Major Lloyd-George

I do everything I can, and I fully appreciate, and agree with, what the hon. Gentleman has said. Under the existing limitations, which we will do our best to get rid of when circumstances permit, we do everything we can to put prisoners of the young age referred to—I know the case which the hon. Gentleman has in mind—amongst either starred prisoners or those of the same age.

Mr. Younger

Can the Home Secretary not offer us any more hope than the word "ultimately" of the provision of remand centres, which was envisaged in the 1948 Act? Is the right hon. and gallant Gentleman aware that, according to the latest figures he has made available, which I am sorry to see are not later than 1953, in that year not far short of 3,000 young people went to prison before conviction or sentence who were subsequently not sentenced to prison? That is a serious matter. Can the Home Secretary really not offer us something better than to say that "ultimately" he hopes to provide remand centres for this purpose?

Major Lloyd-George

I will do everything I possibly can. Everything is ultimate, and we are doing everything we can. The right hon. Gentleman knows perfectly well, however, that there are serious difficulties at the present time.

Mr. Royle

Has the attention of the right hon. and gallant Gentleman been called to a resolution passed unanimously last week at the annual meeting of the Magistrates' Association which shows their grave anxiety on this question, and cannot he hurry things on according to the terms of the Criminal Justice Act, 1948?

Major Lloyd-George

I will do everything I can.