Courts and bug product

[Nicholas Bohm]

Ian Batten wrote:
> 
> On 25 Feb 08, at 1551, Nicholas Bohm wrote:
> 
>> In that case, since Mr Khan new nothing of the surveillance or the 
>> opportunity to be free of it, why should he have wanted to get himself 
>> reclassified?
> 
> Yes, I suppose that's a valid point.  But I think it's unreasonable to 
> ask the prison service to periodically audit the people they have 
> registered as approved visitors to Category A prisoners on the offchance 
> that they have been elected as MPs in the meantime.

I agree for the general case - the prison service certainly have better 
things to do.

But where someone applies to visit a prisoner who is the target of 
surveillance, mentions when being visited at home by a Special Branch 
vetting offer that they are a parliamentary candidate (report para 22), 
and there is in practice an unpublished exemption from surveillance, 
that seems to me a special case.  However, this is a bureaucracy 
operating according to rules which didn't have cases like this in mind, 
didn't have a box to tick, and may not be permeated by common sense.

> I've never had cause to see the form, but it wouldn't surprise me if 
> there was a ``notify us of changes of circumstances'' clause on it, though.

Perhaps, but then how is one supposed to know what changes are relevant?

The prison service website describes procedures for visiting prisoners 
based on the prisoner sending out an "order", and nothing in it seemed 
in the least consistent with the way the Report describes things 
actually working.  The only hit on the site for "Approved Visitors 
Scheme" took me to the visiting information for Belmarsh, which includes 
the following:

"Visitors to Category A prisoners, must be cleared through the 'Approved 
Visitors Scheme', prior to being granted a social visit in open 
conditions. Further details may be obtained from the booking line."

I couldn't be bothered to ring it.

Nicholas
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