§ Mr. Pikeasked the Secretary of State for the Home Department what recent representations he has received regarding the time spent on remand in custody awaiting trial.
§ Mr. MellorOur records do not enable all representations we receive on this subject to be identified, but I recall in particular those made to us last year by the Central Council of Probation Committees, the Association of Chief Officers of Probation and the parliamentary all-party penal affairs group; also the report published by the Prison Reform Trust in March this year.
We are taking action to curb delays. In particular, we plan to move on early next year to apply statutory limits on periods in custody before trial in three of the areas where field trials of such limits have been operating.