§ Mr. Charles Irvingasked the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will seek to co-ordinate prison authorities and magistrates' clerks so that purely formal weekly remand hearings are listed at the beginning of the magistrates' day, with the result that escorting prison officers may immediately take prisoners further remanded back to prison rather then relying upon police officers to do so, so halving the total number of escorted journeys to such remand hearings.
§ Mr. MayhewIt is already the practice in most magistrates' courts for formal weekly remand hearings to be heard at the start of business.
The relationship between the arrangement of magistrates' court business and the demands made on police and prison service manpower is among the matters which we think might usefully be studied by means of a local demonstration project. We have it in mind to propose the setting up of such a project in a selected area in cooperation with the services concerned.