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Summer Recess Adjournment

I wish to raise the case of the prisoner, Ronnie Biggs. A fortnight ago the Secretary of State for Justice made a decision on his case. His son, Michael Biggs, invited me to visit him in prison, HMP Norwich. I applied to the governor to visit. I wanted to see if this 80-year-old was a threat to society. His son said that his health was frail, so I wanted to see what sort of condition he was in, and how that related to the Secretary of State's decision. My application to visit was turned down by the governor, which I think is quite exceptional. I wrote to Ministers and I received a reply from the Justice Secretary, who wrote that the governor, Mr. Paul Baker, thought that""such a visit would cause significant disruption to the hospital on top of the disruption which the hospital has already experienced."" I was surprised at that. I still think it was the wrong decision, but the Secretary of State went on to say:""That said, I also think it is reasonable to ask him to facilitate such a visit in the future"." I hope that that will take place, but it was wrong, in my opinion, to deny me a visit in such circumstances. The real issue is the Secretary of State's decision to overturn the Parole Board's recommendation that Mr. Biggs be released. That was an unreasonable and cruel decision, and there is some evidence that has been put forward by some lawyers that it was a misuse of power and, indeed, ultra vires. Clearly, Mr. Biggs had to spend his time in prison, but his 30-year sentence was excessive. I looked up the Dome diamond robbers, who I think are pretty comparable to those who took part in the great train robbery. Two of them got 18 years, two got 15 years and one got five years. Mr. Biggs would have been released if he had received such a sentence. His sentence was excessive in the first place. It is more comparable to the sentences passed on serious sex offenders and mass murderers, and was inappropriate. Mr. Biggs has now served 10 years after surrendering in 2001. He was eligible for parole and was recommended for parole. The reason given for not granting him that was that he was not repentant. I have a letter from Mr. Chris Pickard, who was the ghost writer behind Ron's autobiography, "Odd Man Out". He states:""I do, therefore, have to question who is advising and briefing Mr. Straw as most of what he has said about Ron in his ruling is simply factually wrong."" Mr. Pickard continues:""To say Ron is unrepentant goes against all the interviews Ron has given on the subject over the years and what he wrote in his autobiography in 1994. Ron has always abhorred violence and has not committed a crime since escaping from HMP Wandsworth back in 1965, other than entering a number of countries on a false passport. Why after over 44 years would Ron, who may never now walk again, return to a life of crime and how would he pull it off in his current state of health?"" To say that Mr. Biggs is unrepentant is plain wrong, and to say that he could benefit from crime is ludicrous. This is an ill man, who can hardly walk; I shall say a little about his ill health. He is not going on a speaking tour. He cannot earn from his crime—that would be against the law. It is the media who are imposing themselves on him, not Ron imposing himself on them, and that will happen anyway when he is released, unless he dies in prison, as some officials in the Home Office seem to want. That is unreasonable. There is some dubiety—I think some craziness—about the legal powers being exercised by the Justice Secretary, using a law that has been repealed and another that was overruled by the Law Lords in 2002. There is massive inconsistency. The Secretary of State will not intervene in cases of murderers who have received life sentences, but he says that he can in cases involving lower offences, such as that of Mr. Biggs. He says that he cannot intervene on future cases, because the law has been changed, but he can on past cases. That is wholly inconsistent. A case is being made by Mr. Biggs's son, Michael, that there was some political element to the decision. The day before, the Secretary of State made a decision in relation to Michael Shields, the Liverpool man who is in prison in Bulgaria. He decided not to let him go, which I think was the wrong decision, but once he had made that decision, he had to make a similar decision in respect of Ronnie Biggs. Both were unreasonable decisions, and the motivation in the Ronnie Biggs case was unreasonable. In reply to a point made by my hon. Friend the Member for Vauxhall (Kate Hoey) on the matter, the Leader of the House said that the Justice Secretary had made his decision to keep Ronnie Biggs in prison in the public interest. What public interest is there in keeping a frail 80-year-old man, who has served 10 years, in prison? It is a cruel penal policy, which many organisations for the elderly and the Prison Reform Trust say it is wrong to inflict on the increasing number of people in their 70s and 80s in prison, despite the fact that the severity of the crimes involved has not increased. Why do we have such elderly people in prison, when they should be outside? My last point concerns Mr. Biggs' ill health. He has suffered three strokes, cannot walk, cannot talk, cannot go to the toilet without a bag, has a nasal gastric feed, has broken his hip and his pelvis, has injured his spine, has acute pneumonia and is currently in Norwich general hospital. This is a man who is a threat to society, according to the Secretary of State for Justice. That is ridiculous. The decision should be reconsidered. It is not in the public interest to have an inhumane penal policy. We should have a humane policy, so I ask that it be reconsidered.