§ 58. Mr. MullinTo ask the Attorney-General when he last discussed the Birmingham Six case with the Director of Public Prosecutions.
§ The Attorney-GeneralIt was mentioned briefly on Thursday 30 November when considering parliamentary questions for answer on Monday 4 December.
§ Mr. MullinDoes the Attorney-General agree that however much new evidence comes forward in the case the judges will never in any circumstances own up to a mistake, so the only way out for everyone is for the Director of Public Prosecutions to go to the Court of Appeal and ask for the convictions to be quashed, as he did in the Guildford case, in such terms as to allow the judges absolutely no discretion? Before the Attorney-General replies, I remind him that when I suggested on previous occasions at Question Time that the people convicted of the Guildford and Woolwich pub bombings were innocent he chose to poke fun at me. Will he now inject a note of humility into his reply?
§ The Attorney-GeneralI reject with force what the hon. Gentleman has said about judges being unwilling or unable to admit to making mistakes when mistakes have been made.
The decision on whether the case of the Birmingham Six is to be referred again to the Court of Appeal rests with my right hon. and learned Friend the Home Secretary. The six were convicted after a trial by a jury and their case cannot be raised again, save by the Home Secretary referring the matter to the Court of Appeal, as has already happened once. My right hon. and learned Friend has said in written answers on more than one occasion that if matters are brought to his attention suggesting a need for serious investigation, they will receive it. He is already considering matters brought to his attention by a solicitor on behalf of some of the men, but in this country we do not set aside convictions by Executive action.