PRESIDENT
OF TH
aw
COUNCI
/R9 10/10
Miso Maraden Ms Saun 10/10
CONFIDENTIAL
WIAD
pa. Cap. pr.
PRIVY COUNCIL OFFICE
1818150
48
WHITEHALL. LONDON SWIA 2AT
Ps
Xeps
PS/Mr Gared-fores Ps / Lord Caithness Ps | Mr Lennox-Boyd
8 October 1990
HID
UND
10/10
Mr Mclaren Mr Beamish Sir A Watts
PPB
PRU
Draw Dongles
HKB
Legal Advisers
380/1 Special Advisers
17 OCT 990
46
DEPENDENT TERRITORIES: CAPITAL PUNISHMENT
Thank you for your minute of 19 September.
I can see that there is a strong case for doing our best to ensure that, for so long as we do not have capital punishment in the United Kingdom, it should not be used in our dependent territories. The action you propose would, I think, inevitably reopen the domestic issue, as David Waddington has argued in his letter of 25 September and is therefore not something which we should contemplate lightly.
I think that, if you wish to pursue the matter, you should develop in more detail the case for taking action now rather than letting sleeping dogs lie - a policy which, on the face of it, has been successfully pursued for some 13 years. If there are doubts about whether Governors will hold the line, could we not consider strengthening their hand by adopting a policy of more positively asking local legislatures themselves to follow the example of Westminster. This would, I acknowledge, involve exercising more explicit pressure than has so far been possible, indirectly, through Governors. But it could be preferable to bypassing local legislatures by simply imposing requirements on them.
Turning to the mechanism you propose, I have some doubts about the appropriateness of using Orders in Council, which would not be subject to Parliamentary debate, to override the wishes of local legislatures in a matter of this kind. My own feeling is that it would be necessary to provide for
to provide for some sort of Parliamentary debate, possibly before the Orders were made, and I think you should take account of the implications of that in developing your proposals.
An
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