§ 9. Dame Irene Wardasked the Secretary of State for the Home Department whether he will take steps to bring English legislation regarding attempted suicide into line with Scottish law.
§ Major Lloyd-GeorgeAs long ago as 1916 the Metropolitan Police adopted, with the approval of the then Secretary of State, the practice of preferring a charge of attempted suicide only where there is no responsible person able or willing to take charge of the individual concerned, or where special circumstances, such as threats of renewed attempts of suicide or positive indications of insanity suggest that the individual should be kept in custody for his own protection. In 1921 the Metropolitan practice was brought to the notice of provincial forces. In the great majority of cases no proceedings are taken and I am not satisfied that a change in the law is desirable.
§ Dame Irene WardWhile thanking my right hon. and gallant Friend for that reply, may I ask him if he will not agree that these cases are among some of the greatest human tragedies? Attempted suicides are brought to a police station and sometimes to the courts, and if the law in Scotland is more humane than it is in England, what objection is there to introducing the Scottish law in England?
§ Major Lloyd-GeorgeI should not like to get into a discussion about what is better in Scotland or in England. There are one or two things which we have accepted from Scotland as being better, but I am not at all sure that this would be one of those cases. So far as the Metropolitan Police are concerned, this circular was issued in 1921, the idea 1433 being—and I think that it is a sound one—that where a person charged with attemped suicide had no friends or relatives to go to it might be thought, and I think rightly thought, that it would be better for him to be charged so that the court could take some steps to protect a person from himself or herself. I do not think that is inhuman at all. It has worked very well, and so far as the Metropolitan Police are concerned I think that only 1 in 20 cases has been proceeded against. We circularised the provinces some time ago, and I am doing the same again.
§ Dame Irene WardWill my right hon. and gallant Friend bear in mind that I am a Northerner and I am tired of hearing about the Metropolitan practice. Are there not first-class voluntary organisations and first-class local authorities, and why should people who are friendless have to go to court when there are public bodies which will befriend them? Will the Home Secretary please look at the matter again, and remember the North?
§ Major Lloyd-GeorgeI am not likely to forget the North, because I happen to sit for a seat in the North. The fact of the matter is that it is through the courts that it is possible to get the use of these voluntary organisations, and all that the Metropolitan Police have done since 1921 has been to tell the provincial forces of their experience, and they are prepared to do so again.