§ Sir Eldon Griffithsasked the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will publish in the Official Report a table showing the length of jail sentence imposed on each of the following persons convicted in 1978 of drugs offences following Operation Julie, the length of sentence actually served, and the date of their release, namely: Richard Kemp, Henry Todd, Brian Cuthbertson, Dr. Christine Bett, David Soloman, Andrew Monro and Russell Spencley.
§ Mr. MellorThe information requested is given in the following table in order of sentence length. Persons released on licence on parole are compulsorily supervised by the probation service and are liable to recall to prison until the expiry of their sentence, excluding remission (which reduces time served by up to one third of the sentence).
The decision to release these persons on parole was taken in each case before the announcement in November 1983 by the then Home Secretary of a new, more restricted policy on parole. We are continuing to follow that policy. It means that prisoners serving sentences of over five years for offences of drug trafficking would not now be released early on parole other than in genuinely exceptional circumstances. It should also be noted that the maximum penalty for trafficking in class A drugs is now life imprisonment, not 14 years as at the time when these persons were sentenced.
held up at the ports there have been three occasions on which his intervention was not followed immediately by a written submission.