asked the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will make a statement on the result of the consideration he has given to the report of the Government Advisory Council recommending the abolition of preventive detention.

The Advisory Council on the Treatment of Offenders recommended that preventive detention should be abolished and that the powers of the courts to deal with persistent offenders by long sentences of ordinary imprisonment should be strengthened. These recommendations, which would require legislation, raise difficult issues, and my right hon. Friend has not yet completed his consideration of them. My right hon. Friend will make a statement as soon as possible.

I thank the hon. Lady for what she has said, but will she endeavour to persuade her right hon. Friend to make a decision as soon as possible, as many people were very upset when a man who had committed petty offences was recently sentenced to eight years preventive detention?

I can only repeat that my right hon. Friend is looking at this as a matter of urgency.