§ Mr. Kilroy-Silkasked the Secretary of State for the Home Department, pursuant to his reply to the hon. Member for Ormskirk on 13 November, Official Report, volume 992, column 350, if he will seek to estimate the reduction that could be made in the prison population assuming that courts followed a tendency towards shorter sentences and that a greater proportion of available resources were allocated to the development of non-custodial sanctions.
§ Mr. MayhewComplex estimates of the kind requested, which require decisions to be made regarding a number of assumptions, can be provided in answer to parliamentary questions only at disproportionate cost. As the hon. Member is aware, estimates of the effect on the prison population of certain changes in sentencing practice are being prepared for the Select Committee on Home Affairs—Minutes of Evidence, 10 November, 1980, paragraph 138.