HC Deb 16 February 1970 vol 796 cc30-1W
Mr. Arthur Lewis

asked the Secretary of State for the Home Department whether he will introduce legislation to ensure that, when a person is arrested by the police and kept in custody on remand, such remand in custody shall not endure for a period longer than four weeks from the date of arrest, and that the arrested person shall have the right to claim after four weeks that any further remand must be on condition that he is allowed to remain in his own home or in a place other than prison.

Mr. Elystan Morgan

No. A magistrates' court may not normally remand an unconvicted person in custody for more than eight days at a time, and it is for the court to decide, in the light of all the circumstances of the case, whether a further remand in custody is justified.