§ Mr. Doddsasked the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he is aware of the anomaly whereby a prisoner believing he has a good case to be heard in an Appeal Court is required to lose six weeks' remission on losing the appeal; and if this applies in the case of Henry Scudder, serving a sentence in Wormwood Scrubs, who recently lost his appeal following a decision by the previous Secretary of State that this was a suitable case for the Appeal Court.
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§ Sir F. SoskiceThe forfeiture of time by a prisoner whose application for leave to appeal is refused by the Court of Criminal Appeal is regulated by Section 38(2) of the Criminal Justice Act, 1948. It is one of the matters under consideration by the Interdepartmental Committee on the Court of Criminal Appeal under the Chairmanship of Lord Donovan and I think it right to await the Committee's views.
Scudder did not lose any time as a result of the reference of his case by my predecessor to the Court of Criminal Appeal under Section 19(1) of the Criminal Appeal Act, 1907. The 42 days which he lost as a result of his own unsuccessful application to the Court of Criminal Appeal in 1960, which was made on different grounds, could be restored only by the exercise of the Royal Prerogative of Mercy and I can find no justification for recommending this exceptional course in his case.