§ Mr. Arnoldasked the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he has plans to reduce the amount of waiting time in magistrates' courts; and whether he will consider the introduction of a listing and appointments system under which the court would be divided in sessions and cases into categories, with the shorter cases taken first.
§ Mr. Mayhew:We have no power to require courts to follow particular practices in their listing arangements, but many courts already have systems for listing cases along the lines mentioned by my hon. Friend, and we are considering a proposal for research designed to assist courts in their approach to this problem.