§ Mrs. BrookeTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department when he plans to publish draft legislation covering the recommendations of the(a) Halliday and (b) Auld reports and the results of the subsequent consultations. [40005]
§ Mr. Keith Bradley[holding answer 5 March 2002]: Responses to the public consultation exercise on John Halliday's report "Making Punishments Work" were published on 4 February 2002. Those to Lord Justice Auld's report on the Criminal Courts have been made available on the Criminal Courts Review website.
The Government are currently considering the recommendations of both reports in the light of those responses, with the intention of setting out its position in a White Paper later this year. Until the legislative programme for next Session has been finalised, it is not clear when there will be an appropriate opportunity to publish legislation in draft.