Suicide and Attempted Suicide

HC Deb 11 December 1958 vol 597 cc496-7

21. Mr. K. Robinson

asked the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he is now in a position to announce Her Majesty's Government's intentions with regard to the law relating to suicide and attempted suicide.

39. Sir F. Medlicott

asked the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he is now able to make a statement as to the possibility of amending the law so that suicide and attempted suicide will no longer be treated as criminal offences.

Mr. R. A. Butler

This problem is under active consideration, but I am not yet in a position to make a statement about it.

Mr. Robinson

Does not the earlier Question of my hon. Friend the Member for Goole (Mr. G. Jeger) lend the strongest support to the case I have been pressing on the right hon. Gentleman over the past year? May I now take it from this, and his earlier reply, that the Government are in favour, in principle, of amending legislation and that it is now merely a question of finding time and means?

Mr. Butler

What is happening is that I am in consultation with my right hon. Friends the Minister of Health and the Secretary of State for Scotland. I have already sought the views of the British Medical Association and the Magistrates' Association, because it is important that I should be sure of all their views. A discussion is going on within the Government and with outside bodies as to the best course to adopt and, until I have concluded that, I would rather not reach a decision.

Sir F. Medlicott

Will my right hon. Friend take into account the enormous number of inquests in which the verdict is brought in that the suicide was due to the balance of mind being disturbed, and that this affords abundant evidence of the fact that this is a problem of mental illness rather than of crime?

Mr. Butler

Yes, Sir, I will certainly bear that in mind. It all fits into the general approach to mental health which we are hoping to make in the New Year. There are two sides to this question but I fully realise the apprenhensions of my hon. Friend and of the House.

Mr. Gordon Walker

Does the Home Secretary realise that whereas proper thought must be given to this question, there is a strong body of opinion that this law is out of date, that it arose for rather illogical reasons in the first place, and that the sooner it is put right the better?

Mr. Butler

Yes, Sir. I am aware of that point of view.