§ 29. Mr. McQuarrieasked the Secretary of State for the Home Department if, in view of the increase in the numbr of murders, he will introduce legislation to restore capital punishment or to provide that a murderer sentenced to a life term shall serve his whole sentence.
§ Mr. WhitelawA motion to restore capital punishment was defeated by a substantial majority in this House on 19 July last year, and I have no plans to introduce legislation for that purpose. The law already provides that a person sentenced to life imprisonment may be detained for the rest of his natural life, and this would be done if necessary; so detaining all murderers, irrespective of the circumstances of their cases, would introduce an undesirable rigidity into the law.