§ 55. Mr. FlynnTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what plans he has to end the calls made on Welsh police forces to house remand prisoners, from outside Wales, in Welsh police stations.
§ Mr. Douglas HoggA number of prisoners are currently held in police cells in Wales under arrangements made by the police to accommodate the overspill or to industrial action. We have tackled the problem on two fronts. We have introduced a package of measures to produce more prison places in the short term additional to the delivery of new prisons under the existing building programme. A total of 2,600 new places have been delivered since March this year and a further 1,400 places will be delivered by the end of the financial year. Secondly, we have worked to bring about an end to the damaging local industrial action at the prisons which were locking prisoners out. Local industrial action has now been suspended and the prisons involved are returning to normal working.
§ 56. Mr. WigleyTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what representations he has received during the last six months with regard to the provision of remand facilities in north Wales; and if he will make a statement.
§ Mr. Douglas HoggI have recently received two letters from the hon. Member for Caernarfon (Mr. Wigley) about the provision of remand facilities in north Wales. I have also written to him in response to a question which he put to me in the House on 21 July. In my letter dated 21 September I informed the hon. Gentleman that we had given careful consideration to the question whether we could justify building a remand centre in north Wales. I concluded that we could not, at present.