§ 2. Mr. Andrew Bowdenasked the Secretary of State for the Home Department when he intends to introduce legislation to give the courts the power to impose "weekend" sentences.
§ The Secretary of State for the Home Department (Mr. Leon Brittan)I shall shortly be issuing a consultative paper seeking views on the various questions which arise over any scheme for intermittent custody. Decisions on legislation will naturally follow our consultations.
§ Mr. BowdenWhen my right hon. and learned Friend decides to go ahead with weekend sentencing, will he make it clear that the sentences will not be a soft option, that discipline will be very strict and that prisoners cannot expect to have any of the recreational facilities which they would normally have at home available to them in prison?
§ Mr. BrittanI shall have to see the response to a document which is yet to be published before we can decide whether to go ahead. The intention of any such sentence would be that it should be a credible alternative to imprisonment. It will not be a credible alternative unless the courts are satisfied that the purposes served by imprisonment would be served at least as well by intermittent custody.
§ Mr. Alex CarlileDoes the Home Secretary accept that the prison service is already heavily overstretched at weekends and that it would be impossible for it to cope with the increased number of people who would undoubtedly be sent to prison if weekend imprisonment were introduced unless there were substantial increases in spending on the prison service?
§ Mr. BrittanThe hon. Gentleman has raised an important point. It is for exactly that kind of reason that one of the points that will be raised in the consultations and discussions will be who will operate such a system of intermittent custody, where, with what regime and with what resources.