§ 100. Mr. Hector Hughesasked the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he is aware of the experiments being conducted in Germany for the purpose of making the punishment fit the 113W crime by changing the penalty from the uniformity of penalties inflicted on British prisoners to a penalty bearing a direct relation to the particular kind of offence of which the particular prisoner was convicted; and if he will consider similar experiments on British prisoners.
§ Mr. RentonThe hon. and learned Member may have in mind the German Federal Republic statute passed some years ago under which, as a means of correction, the court may give a young offender certain directions, for example, as to where he shall live, or as to training or work that he shall undertake. Courts in this country have long had wide powers to include in probation orders such requirements as they think desirable, but it has generally been recognised here that it is best to frame the requirements broadly and to leave the details of the probationer's behaviour and the use of his time to the probation officer's advice and assistance.