§ Lord Aveburyasked Her Majesty's Government:
Whether they will carry out a thorough investigation of the circumstances in which documents were mislaid, causing a prisoner's "request to be repatriated to Germany to complete his sentence" which the Home Office Minister Mr. Peter Lloyd said in a letter dated 22 June 1993 (reference PDP 11688/8/1 PO 11889/93) would be referred to the German authorities for their consideration, to be delayed until 21 September 1993; whether they have informed the German authorities of their lapse, which has cost the prisoner three months' further stay in an English prison, and what has been the additional cost to the taxpayer of this stay.
The Minister of State, Home Office (Earl Ferrers)Responsibility for the subject of this Question has been delegated to the Prison Service and its Director General, Mr. Derek Lewis. The Director General has therefore responded to the Question and his letter is given below.
109WALetter from Mr. Derek Lewis, Director General, HM Prison Service, to Lord Avebury
Lord Ferrers has asked me to reply to your recent Question about the delay in dealing with a prisoner's request to be repatriated to Germany.
I regret to say that the prisoner's repatriation request was inadvertently mislaid arid delayed by some three months. The request has now been referred to the German authorities with full information on the prisoner's detention here. As soon as a response is received, the request will be considered as a priority.
The additional cost directly attributable to the delay would be the marginal cost of holding a prisoner in custody, which is not readily available, but would only arise if we, the German authorities and the prisoner concerned consent to the proposed repatriation.