§ Mr. FavellTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, pursuant to his answer of 16 December to the hon. Member for Stockport,Official Report, column 753, if he will make a statement indicating the basis upon which he is assessing the success of his initiative to reduce the time spent on remand in custody of those remanded from courts in (a) Avon, (b) Somerset, (c) Kent and (d) the west midlands; and as to how he is assessing how the results from each of those areas compare with the rest of England and Wales.
§ Mr. John PattenAfter the introduction of statutory custody time limits in these four areas in April 1987, we monitored the level of compliance with the limits. In the first six months, over 95 per cent. of cases were within their limits. Custody limits were extended to a large part of England and all of Wales in April this year and the preliminary results in those areas are similar. Comparable information is not available for areas where time limits are not yet in force.