New Petitions

Our next petition is PE782, by Mark Colquhoun. It calls on the Parliament to take a view on modernising the law on treason in the United Kingdom; to consider that the recommendations of the Law Commission for England and Wales in 1977, on the reform of the law in this area, have never been implemented; and to make representations to the United Kingdom Parliament as appropriate. Before being formally lodged, the petition was posted on the e-petitioner site where it gathered 11 signatures during the period 31 August to 30 September 2004.Treason is a reserved matter under schedule 5, part I, paragraph 10 of the Scotland Act 1998. The old Scots law of treason was abolished by the treason act of 1708, which is entirely and wholly English law, resting on the English Treason Act 1351, together with a few later statutes. The petitioner argues that"judges as recently as 1917 had extreme difficulty trying to interpret the words from that language and time".In 1977, the Law Commission for England and Wales issued a consultation paper, "Codification of the Criminal Law: Treason, Sedition and Allied Offences". Although the paper contained a number of recommendations, including those highlighted by the petitioner, the law of treason in the United Kingdom has remained unaltered.High treason ceased to be a capital crime in 1998 and, on 27 January 1999, the Home Secretary, Jack Straw MP, formally signed the 6th protocol of the European convention on human rights in Strasbourg, on behalf of the UK Government, formally abolishing the death penalty in the United Kingdom.Given all that information, what do members think that we should do with the petition?

I am puzzled as to why we are considering this petition. It deals with a reserved matter and, in the past, the committee has taken the view that such matters should be referred to Westminster. What was your thinking, convener?

The petition asks for the Scottish Parliament to take a view and we cannot do that unless we consider the petition.

I feel that, because it deals with a reserved matter, we should refer the petition to Westminster. Once we start to go down the road of considering reserved matters, we will open the floodgates to many other petitions.

We are always careful not to do that, but the Scotland Act 1998 allows the Parliament to take views on matters. The petitioner is aware of that and has petitioned the Parliament to take a view.

No, it affects Scotland. The Scots law was subsumed into English law. The laws governing Scotland are UK laws. Although this law was written as an English law, it covers Scotland. That is what makes this a reserved issue.

Yes, and that has never been changed.

It is certainly worth asking questions. Are members happy that we should do that?Members indicated agreement.