HC Deb 13 March 1967 vol 743 cc44-5
48. Mr. John Lee

asked the Secretary of State for the Home Department what is to be done with the execution gallows from Her Majesty's Prisons at Pentonville and Wandsworth.

The Minister of State, Home Office (Miss Alice Bacon)

The execution apparatus at Pentonville and at all other prisons except Wandsworth has been destroyed.

Mr. Lee

Is my right hon. Friend aware that, whatever may be the position about the death penalty for murder, the death penalty remains the penalty for high treason and that it may be necessary at the end of the Rhodesian rebellion?

Miss Bacon

In theory, the death penalty is still retained for treason, arson in Her Majesty's Dockyards and piracy with violence. However, for more than a century there have been no executions in peace time for offences other than murder.

Mr. Ronald Bell

Could this apparatus be made available to the Patronage Secretary?