asked the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will consider introducing a formal fixed and automatic remission in sentencing in cases where defendants plead guilty; and what is the position on this matter in other EEC countries.

I would be prepared to look at any considered proposal along these lines and the reaction to it of interested individuals and organisations. I start with some doubts whether it is right in principle, or workable in practice, to formalise in this way the practice of the courts to impose a shorter sentence in some cases when there has been a plea of guilty.Information about practice in other EEC countries in this respect is not immediately available to me, and would be of doubtful relevance given the wide range of approaches to conditional release and/or remission of sentence.