F
For last sentence of para. 5 of GEN 99 (77)3:
Capital punishment for murder was abolished, as regards Great Britain, by the Murder (Abolition of Death Penalty) Act 1965 (a Private Member's Bill which enjoyed Government assistance) for an experimental period of up to five years: the position
was made permanent by resolutions of Parliament in December 1969. In Northern Ireland
the death penalty remained on the statute book for certain kinds of murder until 1973 (although there had been no executions for many years): it was then abolished on the
initiative of the then Government, in the context of the handling of the emergency, by section 1 of the Northern Ireland (Emergency Provisions Act 1973.
The death penalty remains for treason (for practical purposes, a wartime offence) and for the obsolete offence of piracy (or mutiny) with violence.
For first two sentences of para. 8:
In the United Kingdom, despite continuing concern about murder and other crimes
of violence, continued abolition of the death penalty for murder can now be regarded
as fairly secure, because of the attitude of Parliament: public opinion continues to
favour re-introduction, and a referendum would probably show a substantial majority
in favour of the death penalty for some murders. At Westminster the question has been
treated as an "issue of conscience": decisions have been on a free vote. and much of
the initiative has been left to backbenchers there has been a reticence about
declaring abolition to be Government policy. There have now been twelve years of
abolition for Great Britain, and attempts to re-open the question - even for terrorist
murder have been defeated by convincing majorities. Nearly all Labour and Liberal MPs, and a substantial (and possibly growing) minority of Conservatives, are
abolitionist in opinion. It is unlikely though not out of the question that a
change in the composition of Parliament, or in the murder situation, would create a
majority for restoration: unlikely also that any Government would take an initiative
to restore capital punishment, even though the present Leader of the Opposition and a
number of leading Conservatives are known personally to favour it. Abolition of the
death penalty for piracy would be likely to occasion little opposition or even
comment, since this is not an offence currently prosecuted. The position regarding
treason is more complicated, since it raises questions about handling treachery in
time of war. The Law Commission is currently conducting a review of the law from
which consideration of the penalty is excluded: when the Commission reports and its
Bill goes before Parliament, the question of the death penalty will inevitably come up
for discussion.