§ Mr. Freesonasked the Attorney-General what steps he intends to take to reduce substantially the waiting time spent by prisoners on remand, in (a) Brixton prison and (b) other London establishments generally.
The Solicitor-GeneralCases are being transferred for trial at Crown court centres outside London when this can conveniently be done; 18 new Crown courtrooms were opened in the South-East in 1980; the number of circuit judges was increased by 21 to 169, and 58 judges from provincial circuits assisted by sitting for a total of 208 weeks in or near London.
As a result of these measures, the average waiting times in London for custody cases have been reduced from 20.4 weeks at the end of June 1979 to 17 weeks at the end of June 1980.