§ Mr. Alex CarlileTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he has any proposals to amend the law on provocation in cases of murder; and if he will make a statement.
§ Mr. John PattenWe are always ready to consider proposals for improving the law, but we have no proposals of our own for amending it on provocation as a defence to murder.
§ Mr. Alex CarlileTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will make it his policy to remove the mandatory life sentence for murder, so as to enable sentence to be in the discretion of the trial judge; and if he will make a statement.
§ Mrs. RumboldWe remain of the view, accepted by Parliament during the passage of the Criminal Justice Act 1991, that life should be mandatory for murder to mark the particular heinousness of deliberately taking another person's life.