§ Mr. Grocottasked the Secretary of State for the Home Department (1) what was the average time lag between receipt of a prisoner's petition and a reply being sent in each of the last five years;
(2) how many prisoners petitioned him in each of the last five years;
(3) what proportion of petitions from prisoners he agreed to in each of the last five years.
§ Dr. SummerskillI regret that the information is not available for the past five years. The estimated figures for the past three years, based on a census of one quarter's petitions in each year, are as follows:
Average time for reply
- 1975—39 days.
- 1976—35 days.
- 1977—39 days.
Number of petitions (to nearest 100)
- 1975—11,300.
- 1976—9,500.
- 1977—10,000.
Proportion granted
- 1975—21 per cent.
- 1976—19 per cent.
- 1977—18 per cent.