§ Miss Maynardasked the Secretary of State for the Home Department whether correspondence covered by Rule 37A(1) also includes enclosures with that letter sent by the prisoner to his legal advisers or by them to him in the ordinary professional course (a) before litigation has been commenced, or (b) after litigation has been commenced.
§ Mr. Merlyn ReesPrison Rule 37A(1) applies only to correspondence between a prisoner and his legal adviser about legal proceedings to which the prisoner is a party. Enclosures with letters are treated as part of the correspondence and are subject to the rule.
§ Miss Maynardasked the Secretary of State for the Home Department whether it would be possible, once a prisoner has ventilated his complaint through normal internal channels, for him to be granted privileged correspondence under Rule 37A(1), by a further amendment thereto, with a solicitor so that correspondence with a solicitor with a view to institution of proceedings once the complaint has been ventilated through normal internal channels, would not be subject to Rule 33(3).
§ Mr. Merlyn ReesI am not persuaded of the need for such an amendment.
§ Miss Maynardasked the Secretary of State for the Home Department whether under the Prison Rules he or his agents can inspect correspondence covered by professional privilege between a prisoner and his solicitor in the course of or with a view to litigation so as to enable him to acquaint himself with the contents thereof.
§ Mr. Merlyn ReesUnder Prison Rule 33(3), the governor or an officer deputed by him may read or examine all correspondence to or from a prisoner, except in so far as Rule 37A(1) provides otherwise in regard to correspondence between a prisoner who is a party to legal proceedings and his legal adviser.
414W
§ Miss Maynardasked the Secretary of State for the Home Department (1) whether information gathered from a prisoner obliged to state the full facts of his case to the Home Office or its servants before being allowed facilities to consult a solicitor is utilised by the Home Office in any subsequent proceedings commenced by that prisoner;
(2) whether the provisions of the Prison Rules enable him to require a prisoner to give information which would be available under Order 24, Rule 5 of the Rules of the Supreme Court and Order 14 of the County Court Rules 1936.
§ Mr. Merlyn ReesI assume that my hon. Friend has in mind the requirement for a prisoner to make a complaint about his treatment in prison through the normal internal procedures before he is given facilities to seek legal advice about the possibility of instituting civil proceedings in relation to the matter complained of. No procedure has been instituted under the Prison Rules comparable with those applying under the orders to which she refers. Ventilation of the complaint through the normal internal procedures requires the prisoner to give sufficient particulars of the circumstances and actions giving rise to the complaint to enable the complaint to be investigated. Whether any statement he makes will be utilised in any subsequent proceedings will depend on its relevance to those proceedings.
§ Miss Maynardasked the Secretary of State for the Home Department what regulations, directions, or assistance he proposes to give to prisoners and their legal advisers to distinguish correspondence subject to Rule 37A(1) from correspondence subject to Rule 33(3) so that prison staff may be aware of the reason for the correspondence without the necessity of perusing the communication.
§ Mr. Merlyn ReesNone. I am not persuaded that there is a need for measures of the kind suggested, nor that they could ensure that mere examination of a piece of correspondence without further perusal would invariably be sufficient to establish that it was correspondence between a prisoner and his legal 415W adviser relating to legal proceedings to which the prisoner was a party.
§ Miss Maynardasked the Secretary of State for the Home Department under what statute or other decision of the courts the governor of a prison is empowered to investigate a criminal offence or to conduct an investigation to decide whether or not a criminal offence has been committed and should be reported to the police.
§ Mr. Merlyn ReesThe Prison Rules 1964, as amended, provide that every charge against a prisoner of an offence against discipline shall be inquired into, in the first instance, by the governor. If the alleged offence is a serious criminal offence, the governor is required to report the facts to Prison Department headquarters, which decides whether the police should be informed. Other cases—for example, petty pilfering or minor assaults other than on a member of staff—do not have to be reported to headquarters but may be dealt with as matters of internal discipline.
The governor also has, in accordance with normal Civil Service practice, a general duty to investigate any offence against discipline alleged to have been committed by any member of the prison staff, and to institute disciplinary proceedings in appropriate cases. If, in the course of his inquiry, he has reason to believe that a criminal offence may have been committed, he is required to consult with the appropriate Home Office department to decide whether the police should be informed.