§ 3. Mr. Jannerasked the Secretary of State for the Home Department whether he has completed his consideration of advice to prison authorities and guidance to medical officers given by his Department, following his consideration of the case of Kevin Capenhurst.
§ The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for the Home Department (Mr. David Mellor)We shall be issuing additional guidance in the near future to governors and medical officers of all Prison Department establishments. This will remind them of the need to give prompt consideration to the possibility of special remission of sentence under the royal prerogative of mercy for prisoners who are suffering from terminal illness or are bedridden or similarly incapacitated. I shall place a copy of that guidance in the Library when it is issued.
§ Mr. JannerI thank the Minister for that helpful reply and I am glad that at last some step is to be taken in this matter. However, is the Minister aware that a reminder to medical officers is seldom sufficient to achieve the 408 required result, and that what is needed is that the Minister himself should be informed when one of the very few prisoners who are terminally ill is refused permission to go home or elsewhere to die in dignity? When will he institute instructions that he should be informed about such cases?
§ Mr. MellorI should like to stress two points to the hon. and learned Gentleman, whose interest in these matters is well known to me. First, the guidance note which will be sent out will make some alterations which will be of assistance to ensure that these cases are dealt with even more effectively in future than they have been.
Secondly, on the hon. and learned Gentleman's point about Minister's being notified, I am anxious not to establish bureaucratic procedures which will slow down and not speed up the process of releasing people in genuine cases. Where there are cases of difficulty, these should be reported immediately to Ministers.