To ask the Attorney-General if he will ask the Law Commission to consider the matter of life sentences; and if he will make a statement.

The Law Commission's work on the criminal code will, in time, encompass the whole of the criminal law and will therefore necessarily include all those offences which may attract a life sentence. My right hon. and learned Friend the Lord Chancellor has, however, no plans to invite the Law Commission to embark upon a separate consideration of that penalty.