§ Lord Brougham and Vauxasked Her Majesty's Government:
Whether they have decided to extend the length of the electronic monitoring trials.
§ The Minister of State, Home Office (Baroness Blatch)Yes. As I informed my noble friend in my Answer of 7 November (col. WA 200), my right honourable friend the Home Secretary has been considering a request from the Magistrates' Association to extend the length of the electronic monitoring trials into the next financial year. We agree with the association that it would he helpful to give courts more time to become used to the curfew order, and for it to find its place among other community sentences.
The present trials are currently due to end in April this year and my right honourable friend is proposing to extend them until March 1997. We will also he consulting interested parties about increasing the number of courts in Greater Manchester and Berkshire which will have the sentence available to them.