HC Deb 21 November 1963 vol 684 cc1162-3
25. Sir L. Ropner

asked the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he accepts the recommendations contained in the Third and Fourth Reports of the Criminal Law Revision Committee.

41. Mr. D. Foot

asked the Secretary of State for the Home Department whether Her Majesty's Government intend to introduce legislation to give effect to the recommendations of the Third and Fourth Reports of the Criminal Law Revision Committee dealing respectively with the order of closing speeches in trials on indictment, the substitution of a new form of verdict for the verdict Guilty but insane, and the creation of a right of appeal against a finding of unfitness to plead.

Mr. Brooke

I am not yet in a position to make a statement.

Sir L. Ropner

Can my right hon. Friend say whether the implementation of the recommendations would need legislation?

Mr. Brooke

Yes. I think that in each case it would need legislation.

Mr. Foot

Can the right hon. Gentleman say how long it will take him on this occasion to arrive at a perfectly simple decision?

Mr. Brooke

These matters are not so simple as they seem. When a Reportlike this has been published, it is valuable to give some opportunity for public opinion, including legal opinion, to play on the matter.

Mr. Elwyn Jones

Is it not the case that a distinguished Committee has made recommendations for these two reforms in the criminal law which are very important in the administration of justice? Where the Home Secretary is in the presence of a unanimous opinion of this kind, is not it vital to get on with the process of introducing legislation, or once more is this to be one of those matters which are left for private Members to accomplish?

Mr. Brooke

I would remind the hon. and learned Member that it was I who took the initiative in referring both these questions to the Criminal Law Revision Committee, a body for which I have the greatest respect. I would have thought that it would be carrying things a bit far to say that there must be immediate legislation on the Report of a Committee such as this before people have had time to study it carefuly and to say whether or not they agree with it.