Downing Street Says » Prisoner Voting

» Thursday, February 10, 2011

Prisoner Voting

Asked if the Government recognised the figure of 143million in regards to possible compensation payments to prisoners, the PMS said no; there were a number of cases outstanding but compensation would be determined by court, which meant nobody would be able to say for certain what the figure would be.

Asked what the latest legal advice was, the PMS said that the Attorney General would be setting out details and explaining the position in the House of Commons today.

Asked if the Government would accept paying compensation for prisoners, the PMS said that he would not pre-empt what the Attorney General would say on this today, but it was important to point out that it was not possible to ignore judgements of a court without costs or consequences. The Attorney General would explain the case history in this area to the House of Commons today.

Asked what impact the debate in the House of Commons on prisoner voting could have, the PMS said that the House would debate the possible options in this area, and we were considering a wide range of solutions to the issue. We had been clear that our objective was to keep to an absolute minimum the number of prisoners who got the vote. We would reflect on the options in light of the debate and the legal advice.

Asked why the Prime Minister thought that prisoners shouldn’t be able to vote, the PMS said that the Prime Minister had made clear that if someone has been punished for a crime they should not be given the right to vote.

Asked who would abstain from the vote, the PMS said that Government Ministers would abstain from the vote.

Asked what the time limit was, the PMS said the court had given us 9 months to introduce legislation to implement the judgement in the first case.

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