152. The proposal for independent disciplinary tribunals was developed in a government White Paper published in October 1986, but it did not prove possible to reach agreement on the composition and role of the new tribunals. It was therefore decided in 1987 that boards of visitors should continue to conduct adjudications, but that better training and qualified clerks should be provided to assist boards in this function. Board members have now received intensive training in the revised disciplinary rules and procedures (see below), and their future training needs are currently under review. It is proposed that the boards should be provided with clerks drawn from local magistrates courts and qualified to take the full range of magistrates courts' hearings. The clerks will take the record of hearings and offer procedural and legal advice to the board. A 12-month pilot scheme, involving a small number of prisons, is planned to begin later this year. If the scheme proves successful, it is intended that all boards should in due course be provided with qualified clerks on a similar basis.
153. Following the main recommendations of the departmental committee, a new code of disciplinary offences for inmates came into force in England and Wales on 1 April 1989. A number of charges have been omitted from the new code, including those of making false and malicious allegations against an officer and repeatedly making groundless complaints. In addition, there is no longer a charge of mutiny, and the offences that were automatically classified as grave or especially grave have been removed. New offences have been introduced to cover specific behaviour such as hostage-taking, barricading, fighting, obstructing a prison officer and endangering the personal safety of others. The principal aim of the revision throughout has been to simplify and clarify the range of offences.
154. The maximum loss of remission that a board of visitors can award was reduced on 1 April 1989. The maximum punishment for an adult offender in England and Wales was reduced from 180 days to 120 days on a single charge, and for the first time a maximum for a series of charges arising from one incident was set, at 180 days. The maximum for young offenders in England and Wales was set at 90 days for a single charge and 135 days for a series of charges arising from one incident.
155. Since 1 April 1989, the Home Secretary has the power to quash findings in England and Wales if he believes the findings unsatisfactory. Previously there was only a power to remit the punishment, which technically left the finding of guilt on the prisoner's record.
156. Since the last report, a judgement by the House of Lords in the case of Leech v. Deputy Governor of Parkhurst Prison (1988) and Prevot v Deputy Governor of Long Lartin Prison (1988) had the effect of making governors' adjudications directly reviewable by the courts, in the same way as board of visitors' adjudications have been reviewable since the case of R v Board of Visitors of Hull Prison ex parte St. Germain (1978).
157. The written guidance on the conduct of adjudications has been completely revised and updated and forms the basis of training for governors and boards who conduct adjudications. The guidance manual has been published; it is therefore available not only in prison libraries, as it has always been, but prisoners may also purchase their own copy to keep in their cells.
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