Mr Norman Fowler: asked the Minister of Posts and Telecommunications whether he will now set up an inquiry into the need for an independent broadcasting council to hear complaints from the public.
Mr Norman Fowler: Does not my right hon. Friend agree that the public should have the right of appeal to a tribunal? If he will not set up an inquiry, will he at least confirm that the door is not closed to his re-examination of the case for a tribunal?
Mr Norman Fowler: asked the Secretary of State for the Home Department what was the net gain or loss in the strength of police forces in England and Wales, including the Metropolitan Police, in the first four months of this year; how this figure compares with the comparable period in the years 1969, 1970 and 1971; and whether he will make a statement on the police recruiting campaign.
Mr Norman Fowler: I thank my right hon. Friend for that reply. Is not this a very encouraging trend? Does it not show that complete wisdom of the Government's reversing the policy of the Labour Government of restricting police recruitment? Will my right hon. Friend confirm that for the first time in police history a significant number of graduates are entering the police service?
Mr Norman Fowler: I beg to move, That the Clause be read a Second time. In this new Clause we are dealing with the punishment for murder. I suppose there is no other subject which arouses such strong emotions or such strong feelings. Normally these are clearly about capital punishment, and yet the strange fact is that although the argument on capital punishment has ranged to and fro, very little attention has...
Mr Norman Fowler: The hon. Lady made a point about an added danger to prison officers as a result of the Clause. The present situation is that a court can,recommend a minimum period. We have been told that successive Home Secretaries will in most situations—virtually all, it seems—accept that minimum period. Is the hon. Lady therefore saying that the court's power to recommend a minimum period should be...
Mr Norman Fowler: I am sure that hon. Members on both sides will agree that we have had a good and valuable debate which has revealed and expressed the great concern which is felt on this subject. I give no ground on the evidence and arguments which my hon. Friends and I have put to the House, but I was impressed by what my right hon. Friend the Home Secretary said, and I express our gratitude to him for the...
Mr Norman Fowler: I listened with interest to the hon. and learned Member for Rowley Regis and Tipton (Mr. Peter Archer) and found myself in a great deal of agreement with him until his last remark, which was quite an unworthy allegation to make. I do not think that courts basically enjoy that kind of thing.
Mr Norman Fowler: I do not think that anyone, even the Opposition Whip, who has just arrived, would deny the seriousness of the question we are trying to debate. Surely the most significant figure that has been put forward about bail is that almost half of those who are denied bail are subsequently either acquitted or, more often than not, are not sent to prison. I realise that qualifications have to be made...
Mr Norman Fowler: That may be so. However, in my view the essential message flowing from the reports of Michael Zander and the Cobden Trust is that not enough information is presented to our courts when they are making their decisions.
Mr Norman Fowler: Clearly, that is an important point. However, I shall keep to my theme, though legal aid is a matter that I intended to mention. Basically, I ask for more information to be presented to courts. They want to know much more about a man's previous record, whether he has a steady job, about his family ties, and how long he has lived in the area concerned. Certainly if an accused person is legally...
Mr Norman Fowler: As a matter of course, courts should have adequate information upon which to base their decisions. Reinforcing what was said by my hon. Friend the Member for Chippenham (Mr. Awdry), I believe that courts should also know the police attitude to bail. After all, the police have a legitimate interest. They do not want to spend time searching for a person for whom perhaps they have spent a...
Mr Norman Fowler: I agree with my hon. Friend the Member for Bedford (Mr. Skeet) that this is a limited Bill. There is, however, a certain overlap here with what we were discussing earlier. I support the Lords Amendments on a number of grounds. As Member for Nottingham, South, I have been impressed by the strength of feeling of firms and trading associations in the area about the Amendment. I have received...
Mr Norman Fowler: I accept that there are difficulties about this matter, but surely there is no good reason for ignoring it when it is easy to make a distinction. All that I was requesting was that the label reading "Made in Hong Kong" should be prominently displayed so that the purchaser knows what he is buying. I do not deny that there are technical problems about other goods, but in this case I should have...
Mr Norman Fowler: Would my right hon. Friend not agree that the last Government's proposals on industrial relations gave just as much potential for martyrdom as anything in the present Act? Would he not agree also that the essential point about the rule of law in industrial relations is that it still has the overwhelming support of the mass of the population?
Mr Norman Fowler: asked the Minister of Posts and Telecommunications whether he is now in a position to announce the name of the next chairman of the British Broadcasting Corporation Governors.
Mr Norman Fowler: asked the Secretary of State for the Home Department what has been the percentage increase in crimes of violence against the person, and robberies, respectively in the five years since 1967; and how this compares with the overall percentage increase for all crimes in that period.
Mr Norman Fowler: Would my right hon. Friend the Home Secretary agree that the trend is for the most serious forms of crime—crimes like robbery and offences against the person—to increase by more than the average, and has not the time come to take a new initiative against professional crime in this country, notably by strengthening the CID?
Mr Norman Fowler: Will my right hon. Friend accept that these inquiries he has set up will be widely welcomed by the public and that the fact that Lord Butler is chairing one will create increased confidence in them? Will he also accept and agree that public security must be the first priority in decisions on release of this kind, and will he examine whether the parole board procedure, which is working very...
Mr Norman Fowler: asked the Secretary of State for the Environment how much will the United Kingdom be subscribing to the Environment Fund agreed at Stockholm.