§ Mr. Cohenasked the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will make a statement about the procedure by which letters to prisoners in a foreign language are vetted; and what is the average time delay this involves.
§ Mr. MellorI refer the hon. Member to the reply I gave to a question by the hon. Member for Merionnydd Nant Conwy (Mr. Thomas) on 17 November 1986Official Report, column 28. Records are not kept of the average time taken to censor correspondence in a foreign language: in any given case, if a translation is considered necessary, the time it takes will depend to a great extent on the availability of a translator for the language in question, and on the length of the letter.