TNAG-0723-FCO40-921-Capital-punishment-in-the-Dependent-Territories-1978 — Page 29

House

:6) Lords

19 January 1978.

Reference......

Question

Cols 201-3

DEATH PENALTY IN DEPENDENT TERRITORIES

3.13 p.m.

E!

Lord KENNET: My Lords, I beg leave, to ask the Question which stands in my name on the Order Paper.

The Question was as follows:

To ask Her Majesty's Government how many persons have been executed in Crown Colonies and Dependent Territories, and in which, since the last person was executed in the United Kingdom.

The MINISTER of STATE, FOREIGN and COMMONWEALTH OFFICE (Lord Goronwy-Roberts): My Lords, the total is 29. With your Lordships' permission, I will circulate the details in the Official Report.

Following is the information referred to:

66

Since 13th August 1964 the follow- ing numbers of executions have been carried out in British Dependent Territories. For comparison, the numbers of reprieves granted in capital cases in the same period is also shown.

A. PRESENT UNITED KINGDOM

DEPENDENT Territories

Territory

Belize Bermuda

22

Executions Reprieves

12

1

British Virgin

Islands

1

3

Hong Kong

2

99

Montserrat

Nil

Solomon

Islands*

Nil

1

*Death penalty abolished 1966.

B. FORMER TERRITORIES WHICH HAVE

BECOME INDEPENDENT SINCE 13TH AUGUST 1964

Country Executions Reprieves† Gambia

Nil

5

British Guiana

(now Guyana)

3

Nil

Bechuanaland

(now Botswana) 9

4

Basutoland

(now Lesotho)

3

Nil

Barbados

3

1

Fiji

1

5

Bahamas Seychelles*

3

Nil

12 1

Full information is not available in respect of Aden and Swaziland, and of the territories which now form the West Indies Associated States. †These figures are for the period 13th August 1964 up to independence only.

*Death penalty abolished 1966.

*

Lord KENNET: My Lords, I thank the noble Lord for his heipful Answer. In view of the recent riots with loss of life following the executions in Bermuda and of the deplorable charges which were hurled about among the people of Bermuda and between Bermuda and London, will the Government now con- sider the desirability of amending the Creech Jones doctrine and of saying to our few remaining Colonies:

46

If you want to stay with us you must take us as you find us, and you must take the smooth with the smooth and abolish the death penalty"?

My

Lord GORONWY-ROBERTS: Lords, my noble friend is aware, of course, that my right honourable friend the Foreign and Commonwealth Secretary has invited the other place to debate this matter in its entirety with a view to resolving outstanding difficulties in the application of the 1947 policy--the Creech Jones formula. I have no doubt that the other place will shortly conduct such a debate and it may be that the invitation, couched as it was in terms of “Parlia- ment", may include this noble House as well.

Lord PAGET of NORTHAMPTON: My Lords, will the noble Lord not point out to our Colonies that on the accumu- lating evidence, capital punishment, par- ticularly in the case of political murders, does not deter, but promotes, violence and assassination and is a very silly thing to go into?

My

Lord GORONWY-ROBERTS: Lords, not for the only time am I very glad to agree with the general purpose of the observations of my noble friend.

Baroness WOOTTON of ABINGER: My Lords, in initiating this debate throughout our remaining Colonies, has any indication been given of the direction in which Her Majesty's Government would like the outcome to be and, if so, has it been considered that the death penalty has been abolished in this country over the last 12 years?

Lord GORONWY-ROBERTS: My Lords, yes, I think that my noble friend has largely indicated certain indications of Her Majesty's Government's thinking on this matter. It is a fact, as she has

CODE 18-77

S$ 10/76

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