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1979 Jul 11 - 1986 Mar 5
Prime Ministerial Private Office files

PREM19/1782
Home Affairs (Capital punishment: sentencing policy) (Part 1)

Source: TNA, PREM19 series
Release date: 2014 Dec 30
Classification: Confidential
Page count: 253
Any docs withheld?

PREM19/1782 - download whole file (PDF, 47.69 MB)

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Showing items 21 - 40 of 40

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Date Value Title
84 Jun 21 Th Major Home Affairs: Lord Advocate minute to MT (time limit on criminal proceedings) [recent High Court ruling affecting cases in Scotland] [declassified 2014]
84 Jul 13 Fr Major Home Affairs: Brittan letter to Whitelaw (“Tougher Regimes in Detention Centres”) [follow-up to 1979 Manifesto commitment] [declassified 2014]
84 Sep 17 Mo Major Home Affairs: Brittan letter to Whitelaw (“Time Limits in Criminal Proceedings”) [“could make a useful contribution to reducing excessive delay”] [declassified 2014]
84 Sep 24 Mo Major Home Affairs: Lord Hailsham letter to Brittan (“Time Limits in Criminal Proceedings”) [“I continue to have doubts about the value of statutory time-limits”] [declassified 2014]
84 Sep 28 Fr Major Home Affairs: Brittan letter to Whitelaw (introducing statutory time limits on the bringing of criminal proceedings) [feedback from Attorney General and Lord Chief Justice] [declassified 2014]
84 Oct 1 Mo Major Home Affairs: Jenkin letter to Brittan (“Time Limits in Criminal Proceedings”) [need to balance addressing court delay with risk of public backlash if detainees released on technicality] [declassified 2014]
84 Oct 1 Mo Major Home Affairs: Hurd letter to Brittan (“Time Limits in Criminal Proceedings”) [“The enactment of Home Office legislation would leave Northern Ireland unhappily exposed, as the only jurisdiction in the United Kingdom unable to conform”] [declassified 2014]
84 Oct 2 Tu Major Home Affairs: Peter Rees letter to Brittan (“Time Limits in Criminal Proceedings”) [cost implications of judicial reform] [declassified 2014]
84 Oct 8 Mo Major Home Affairs: Brittan letter to Whitelaw (“Time Limits on Criminal Proceedings”) [Prosecution of Offences Bill] [declassified 2014]
85 Mar 28 Th Major Home Affairs: No.10 Policy Unit minute to MT (“Prosecution Appeals”) [“Lawyers see this as being the first occasion in history that the prosecution has been involved in sentencing. If you do not want a constitutional wrangle but wish to do something bearing in mind the 1983 Conference pledge, there is an alternative [to pushing legislation through Commons]”] [declassified 2014]
85 Mar 28 Th Major Home Affairs: Brittan minute to MT (lenient sentencing) [“action we should take following the Lords’ rejection of the clause in the Prosecution of Offences Bill which gave the Attorney General a power to refer apparently over-lenient sentences to the Court of Appeal”] [declassified 2014]
85 Apr 2 Tu Major Home Affairs: No.10 Policy Unit briefing for MT (“Prosecution of Offences Bill: Meeting with the Lord Chancellor and the Home Secretary, 3 April 1985”) [“This battle in Parliament might win the power to obtain sentencing guidelines or might be lost. It would be better to achieve the same by a safer route”] [declassified 2014]
85 Apr 3 We Major Home Affairs: No.10 record of conversation (MT, Whitelaw, Brittan, Hailsham, Biffen, Havers, Wakeham, Lord Denham) [“Lenient Sentences”] [declassified 2014]
85 Apr 15 Mo Major Home Affairs: No.10 minute to MT (“Limited Sentences”) [Debate on the Prosecution of Offences Bill: Lords resistance to enhancing Attorney General’s powers on appealing lenient sentences] [declassified 2014]
86 Jan 31 Fr Major Home Affairs: Hurd minute to MT (“Lenient Sentences”) [MT preoccupied with “Attorney General’s right to refer an acquittal to the Court of Appeal on a point of law… so that guidance on sentencing in that kind of case could be issued”] [declassified 2014]
86 Feb 5 We Major Home Affairs: No.10 Policy Unit minute to MT (“Sentencing and the Criminal Justice Bill: H Committee, 4 February”) [“problem of lenient sentencing”] [declassified 2014]
86 Feb 7 Fr Major Home Affairs: No.10 minute for MT (“Criminal Justice Bill”) [main features of the White Paper] [declassified 2014]
86 Feb 10 Mo Major Home Affairs: No.10 minute to MT (“Lenient Sentencing”) [MT queries power to refer a point of law to Court of Appeal following acquittal] [declassified 2014]
86 Feb 12 We Major Home Affairs: No.10 Policy Unit minute to MT (“Lenient Sentencing”) [minimum sentencing for robbery and rape] [declassified 2014]
86 Feb 14 Fr Major Home Affairs: Hurd PS letter to No.10 (“Lenient Sentences”) [amended proposal following opposition in Lords] [declassified 2014]