Oral question asked in the House of Lords, by Lord Bramall (Crossbench). It was answered on Tuesday, 15 January 2008.

Murder: Law Commission Report

Question: My Lords, following on from what my noble and learned friend Lord Lloyd said, does the Minister not agree that it is entirely wrong that, as things stand, someone who in the line of duty kills another person because of a perceived split-second error of judgment can, if found guilty, be guilty only of murder, with an inevitable mandatory life sentence?

Answer: My Lords, the noble and gallant Lord raises a very important matter. The Law Commission argued that the law should make provision for those whose killings are judged to be an over-reaction in self-defence, and that a partial defence should be available in such cases to reduce the charge from murder to manslaughter. The commission proposed to address this by widening the provocation defence to include cases where the defendant killed in response to a fear of serious violence. That is one of the matters that we will be looking at very carefully.

Secondary information