§ Lord Mulleyasked Her Majesty's Government:
On how many occasions in 1983 (a) in the Inner London area and (b) in other parts of the country, persons have been prevented, by the inability of the prison authorities to arrange for their appearance, from attending magistrates' courts in order to be present when effective proceedings are pending concerning their continued remand in custody, committal, sentence or trial; and what steps are to be taken to ensure that this deprivation of the rights of the citizen and impediment to the efficiency of the courts are avoided.
§ Lord EltonPrisoners not produced in court are subject to other court orders directing their detention in custody. I regret that information about the number of prisoners who have not been produced is not centrally available and could be collected only at disproportionate cost. I very much regret any failure to comply with a court order: we expect the number of occasions on which this happens to be steadily reduced by the improvements in prison staffing that we have announced.