§ Mr. HARDIEasked the Home Secretary the last occasion on which general punishments under the criminal law in England and Scotland were reviewed and fixed; and whether, in view of the change in public opinion on this subject, he will undertake a fresh review of the punishments of penal servitude passed under many statutes with the object of relieving the judiciary from the obligation of inflicting sentences involving long terms of Penal servitude?
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§ Sir W. JOYNSON-HICKSI cannot answer regarding Scotland. As regards England, many new or consolidated statutes prescribing maximum sentences have been passed by Parliament over a long period of years. There is no obligation on the judiciary to pass a long rather than a short term of penal servitude in any particular case. The sentences passed are, as a rule, much shorter than they were, and I do not think there is any need for a general review of the kind suggested.