TNAG-2084-FCO40-2969-Death-penalty-in-Hong-Kong-1990 — Page 97

CONFIDENTIAL

The Home Office would almost certainly oppose the suggested amendment which would make the passage of their Bill much more difficult.

iii)

iv) For similar reasons, the Lord President and the Chief Whip would also oppose our amendment and they should certainly be consulted before we took this idea any further.

v) The suggested route of an amendment to the Criminal Justice Bill would also require Orders in Council for the five Caribbean Dependent Territories, to implement the legislation. We should thus be provoking at least two sets of Parliamentary rows, if not more.

4.

The Creech-Jones Doctrine, which obliges Governors to take sole responsibility to exercise the mercy prerogative, is now forty-three years old and clearly out-of-date. Mr Lennox-Boyd notes the objections against simply overriding the doctrine. But it should not be necessary to enact primary legislation to rectify faults in an outdated policy.

5.

In the light of the above, Mr Lennox-Boyd would much prefer the following course, although he recognises that it is a little untidy: we should introduce Orders in Council to abolish Capital Punishment in the five Caribbean Dependent Territories. These could be taken together in Parliament, involving a single one and a half hour debate. A further, most important advantage is that they are not amendable. We could argue that there was no time for legislation. We could arrange to introduce the legislation which is required in respect of Bermuda in the next Parliament.

6.

Alternatively we could postpone even the Orders in Council until the next Parliament. In either case, we could use the fact that we intended to introduce the Orders in Council to abolish capital punishment as a means of effectively instructing the Governors in the Caribbean Dependent Territories in particular, and most pressingly, Anguilla

that they should commute any death sentences before the Orders in Council took effect. (The Governor in Bermuda has already made clear that he will commute all death sentences.) This would have the same effect as Mr Gorham's proposal in para 11 of his submission.

CONFIDENTIAL

Martin Hatfull

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