§ 27. Miss Baconasked the Secretary of State for the Home Department when he proposes to make a statement on the report of the Streatfeild Committee on the Business of the Criminal Courts.
§ Mr. R. A. ButlerThe Streatfeild Committee has produced a most valuable and stimulating Report, and I am glad to be able to express the Government's appreciation of its work. My noble and learned Friend, the Lord Chancellor, and I are studying carefully the important issues which the Report raises and the steps needed to implement its recommendations, but I have as yet no statement to make.
§ Miss BaconIs the right hon. Gentleman aware that speeding up the business of the courts is one of the ways in which gross overcrowding in our prisons can be alleviated? Is he aware that about 10,000 people a year are remanded in custody and that of these about 1,300 stayed in prison on remand for over eight weeks? Would the right hon. Gentleman not agree that, apart from the effect on individuals, this in one way in which, to use the words of the Streatfeild Committee, we can alleviate the clogging up of the prison system?
§ Mr. ButlerYes, Sir. It was because of this that I appointed the Streatfeild Committee as one of the several reforms that I have undertaken. Now, having received the Committee's Report, I think that we shall be able to do something about speeding up matters, and that in turn will alleviate prison conditions.