§ 2.35 p.m.
§ LORD STONHAMMy Lords, I beg leave to ask the first Question which stands in my name on the Order Paper.
§ [The Question was as follows:
§ To ask Her Majesty's Government how many men now serving sentences of preventive detention were, when sentenced, above "the maximum qualifying age for preventive detention, as stated in the practice direction" of the Lord Chief Justice; and of this number how many are at present aged 70 years and over.]
§ THE MINISTER OF STATE, HOME OFFICE (LORD DERWENT)My Lords, I do not know of any practice direction which states a maximum qualifying age for a sentence of preventive detention. There are at the present time sixteen male prisoners undergoing preventive detention who are more than 70 years old.
§ LORD STONHAMMy Lords, when the Lord Chief Justice referred the other day to the case of a man of 62, I understood that he must be referring to a maximum age for preventive detention. That is how I took it. Can I ask the noble Lord, with regard to the fourteen men over 70 years of age—
§ LORD DERWENTSixteen.
§ LORD STONHAMI am sorry—the sixteen men now over 70 years of age, what has happened to them, in view of the fact that Parkhurst is no longer being used as a P.D. prison, that these men can therefore no longer be in the geriatric ward there, and there is no other provision of a similar character in any other prison?
§ LORD DERWENTI am afraid I have not got the details of each of these sixteen men. I do not know where they are at the present moment. If the noble Lord would like to put down another Question, I could probably answer it.
§ LORD STONHAMWill the noble Lord then ask his right honourable friend to inquire into the sentences of these sixteen men?—because it does seem absurd and unnecessary to imprison men of that age in a secure prison.
§ LORD DERWENTThe noble Lord will know, of course, that the length of sentences is nothing to do with the Home Secretary.