To secure a
section of any mention of the possible purposes of torture. conviction in proceedings in the United Kingdom, it was enough for a person to have inflicted severe physical or mental suffering. The penalty for a person found guilty of torture was life imprisonment (sect. 134, subsect. (6)).
5.
A question had been asked about administrative measures: they were measures establishing standards in respect of arrest and detention in order to ensure that persons in police detention or custody were not exposed to ill-treatment. There was, for instance, a code of police practice which guaranteed that complaints were investigated and police officers found guilty of an offence were subject to disciplinary or other measures. important that the police should realize that they could not break the law with impunity.
It was
The Criminal Justice Act 1988 also applied in Scotland, where, in addition, persons guilty of torture could be prosecuted for a number of other offences under Scots law.
7. The members of the Committee had requested an exact definition of the offence of assault: it was "any act done, intentionally or recklessly, which causes another person to apprehend immediate and unlawful violence".
It was a common law offence. In England, Wales and Northern Ireland, persons guilty of torture could also be prosectued for one of the offences under the Offences against the Person Act 1861.
8.
In connection with proceedings for assault in the Sheriff Court (para. 29 of the report), she explained that, in Scotland, the offence of assault, where it involved less serious injury, could be tried by the Sheriff Court, which could punish a guilty person by up to 3 years' imprisonment. However, if the Sheriff Court considered that the sentence would be inadequate to the seriousness of the offence, it was empowered to refer the case to a higher court.
9.
With regard to the question of corporal punishment in schools, the situation differed in publicly funded and independent schools. In publicly funded schools, corporal punishment had been abolished by the Education No. 2 Act 1986. The Government had so far taken the view that fee-paying parents of children in independent schools were in a better position to express their convictions. It should be noted, however, that the matter was currently being Considered by the European Commission of Human Rights in Strasbourg.
10. She explained that the role of the prosecutor was to decide whether proceedings should be instituted. Under section 135 of the Criminal Justice Act, in England, Wales and Northern Ireland the Attorney-General's consent was required for proceedings for an offence under section 134.
11.
she
With respect to the implementation of article 3 of the Convention, said that United Kingdom legislation met the requirements of that article. The law guaranteed in particular that, when an extradition request was made by a country where torture might well occur, the person concerned would not be extradited. Sections 6 and 12 of the Extradition Act 1989 set out the particular circumstances in which a person might not be extradited, but the
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