Downing Street Says » Prisoner Voting

» Tuesday, February 8, 2011

Prisoner Voting

Asked whether Government Ministers should abstain and did the Government have any desire not to see a vote, the PMS said there would be a vote. We had said we would listen to the views expressed by Parliament. Our position was that we wanted to listen to what Parliament said. And we would take that into account as we proceeded with that particular issue.

Asked why Lynn Featherstone had said she would vote, the PMS replied he had not seen what she said but the guidance given to Government Ministers was that they should abstain. That was consistent with the Government saying it would listen to what Parliament had to say.

Asked about PPSs, the PMS replied he wasn’t sure if the same instruction had been given to PPSs.

Asked if it was the Government’s position to oppose this motion, the PMS said that the Government position was to abstain.

Asked what the policy was, the PMS said we had a policy and our policy was that we wanted to keep the number of prisoners who get the vote to an absolute minimum. We had not set out precisely what that would mean in practise. There was a legal judgement that had to be made. That was our policy and we were listening to what Parliament would say and we would take that into account.

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