HC Deb 15 November 1979 vol 973 cc710-1W
28. Mr. Rooker

asked the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will make a statement regarding his policy on ex-gratia payments to persons who have wrongly served prison sentences.

Mr. Brittan

The policy of my right hon. Friend and of successive Home Secretaries has been to give sympathetic consideration to an application for an exgratia payment from public funds to a person who has been granted a free pardon or whose conviction has been quashed after his case has been referred to the Court of Appeal under section 17 of the Criminal Appeal Act 1968. Exceptionally, payments have been authorised in other cases where the circumstances were compelling and there has been some misconduct or negligence on the part of some public authority.