Life Sentence Prisoners (Hansard, 17 January 1994)

Earl Ferrers
My Lords, the Home Secretary may release on licence offenders who have been sentenced to life imprisonment for murder, if he has been recommended to do so by the Parole Board. The Parole Board can direct the Home Secretary to release on licence those offenders who have been sentenced to life imprisonment for offences other than murder.

§ Lord Boyd-Carpenter
My Lords, in the case of convictions for murder, do I understand my noble friend to say that the decision is taken personally by the Home Secretary or delegated by him to some other person over whom he has no control?

Earl Ferrers
My Lords, my right honourable friend delegates a number of powers to other people. I think that I am correct in saying that those who are released on a life licence will have the personal approval of the Home Secretary.

§ Lord Avebury
My Lords, in making that recommendation to the Secretary of State, is not the principal factor in the minds of the local review committees and the Parole Board the likelihood that a prisoner may re-offend? Is it the practice always to ensure that, in coming to their assessment, the parole authorities have the advice of a qualified psychiatrist?

Earl Ferrers
My Lords, the Parole Board takes advice from a number of different quarters. I think that the answer to the noble Lord, Lord Avebury, is yes, but I should prefer to confirm that.

Lord Hunt
My Lords, will the noble Earl confirm that, before deciding to release prisoners on life licence, the Home Secretary consults the Lord Chief Justice and, if he is available, the original trial judge? Will he further confirm that the Parole Board itself always takes carefully into account any comments that were made by the trial judge before deciding to recommend such a prisoner?

Earl Ferrers
My Lords, the noble Lord is correct in both his observations.

§ Lord Ackner
My Lords, the Question, as I read it, is not limited purely to life sentences in relation to murder. For example, many life sentences are imposed on those who intended to kill but did so under provocation, the persistent arsonist, the multiple rapist and the like. I believe that the procedure is quite different when it comes to the discretionary life sentence. Can the noble Earl inform the House of the Answer to the Question regarding the discretionary life sentence, and, if the decision-making process is markedly different, what is the justification?

Earl Ferrers
My Lords, as I said in the original Answer, the process is different. In discretionary life sentences the Parole Board can direct the Home Secretary to release on licence those offenders who were sentenced to life imprisonment other than for murder. There are a number of differences in the procedure, but the fact is that the Parole Board directs the Home Secretary and, if the Parole Board has so directed, the Home Secretary cannot go against its views. With a life sentence for murder, it is up to the Home Secretary to accept or reject any advice he receives.

§ Lord McIntosh of Haringey
My Lords, the answer given by the Minister to the noble and learned Lord, Lord Ackner, indicates that there are significant differences in the procedure for murder and for other cases. The noble and learned Lord went on to ask: what is the justification for those differences? I did not hear an answer to that question.

Earl Ferrers
My Lords, the justification is that murder is considered a unique crime and as such it requires the authority of the Home Secretary to allow back into that society for which the Home Secretary is responsible people who have murdered on previous occasions.

§ Lord McIntosh of Haringey
My Lords, will the Minister agree that, far from being a unique crime, murder includes an enormous range of different crimes with different degrees of seriousness and different degrees of motivation? Indeed, murder is the least unique crime of almost any which comes before the courts.

Earl Ferrers
My Lords, the taking of the life of an individual is a unique crime. The motivation for it covers a variety of different aspects.

§ Lord Ackner
My Lords, manslaughter involves the taking of a life. Is it, therefore, as unique as murder? If so, why is there not the same procedure?

Earl Ferrers
My Lords, I do not wish to become involved in legal niceties, but manslaughter is in a different category from murder, where murder has been undertaken with the direct purpose of removing someone's life.

§ Lord Hailsham of Saint Marylebone
My Lords, has my noble friend reflected on the fact that if the victim dies over a year and a day after the original attack it is not murder; but if he dies a year less a day, it is murder?

Earl Ferrers
My Lords, oddly enough I did consider that curious point. The fact is that if a person dies over a year and a day after the murder, it may well be that he would have died anyhow because he might have had a heart attack. It would be difficult to ascribe such a death to the act of murder. Clearly, one has to draw a line somewhere and it has been considered in law—about which my noble and learned friend will know much more than I—that that is a suitable date and there is no particular reason to change it.