HC Deb 23 May 1957 vol 570 cc1391-2
42. Mr. E. Fletcher

asked the Secretary of State for the Home Department in what circumstances the Metropolitan Police are instructed to take fingerprints from persons charged with minor offences.

Mr. R. A. Butler

In ordinary circumstances, the police do not take fingerprints from persons charged with minor offences.

Mr. Fletcher

Would the Home Secretary explain how taking a person's fingerprints helps the police to prove a charge of drunkenness?

Mr. Butler

I would rather not go into detail. If the hon. Gentleman would, perhaps, have a talk with me, I will explain the matter to him.

43. Mr. E. Fletcher

asked the Secretary of State for the Home Department on what grounds an order has been issued to the Metropolitan Police, as recently stated in evidence by Inspector Atkinson at the Clerkenwell Magistrates' Court, that all Irishmen's fingerprints are to be taken; and whether, in view of the discrimination involved in this order, he will now have it withdrawn.

44. Mr. Orbach

asked the Secretary of State for the Home Department by what authority, and in what circumstances, police officers in the Metropolitan Police district take the fingerprints of Irishmen.

Mr. R. A. Butler

In the absence of a court order, the fingerprints of a person in police custody may be taken only with consent. The instruction mentioned by the hon. Member for Islington, East (Mr. E. Fletcher) was confined to the taking of fingerprints with consent for the purpose of assisting a particular criminal investigation, and the fingerprints taken have been subsequently destroyed.

Mr. Fletcher

May we take it from that Answer that the Home Secretary repudiates the suggestion made that the fingerprints of all Irishmen charged with minor offences are in future to be taken?

Mr. Butler

I should not like to commit myself to any such generalisation.

Mr. Gaitskell

I understood from the Home Secretary's original reply that this was an individual case wherein a particular person gave his Consent. Would the right hon. Gentleman not be prepared to say that there is no reflection on Irishmen as a whole?

Mr. Butler

There is no reflection on Irishmen at all. There is also no desire on my part to restrict those authorities responsible for the detection of crime.

Mr. Hyde

Would my right hon. Friend not agree that, so far as Irishmen are concerned, whether they are innocent or not, they seldom plead guilty?

Mr. Orbach

May we take it from the reply of the Home Secretary that the statement made by Inspector Atkinson since the recent murder, that it is an order that all Irishmen's fingerprints are to be taken, is either incorrect, as put in that very fruitful newspaper, the Sunday Express, or that the inspector himself is to be reprimanded by the Home Secretary? Further, is the right hon. Gentleman aware of the alarm that this sort of statement has created amongst other minority groups, apart from Irishmen?

Mr. Butler

It is the fundamental duty of the Home Secretary to protect minorities and the liberty of the subject. I certainly will investigate the particular point to which the hon. Gentleman has drawn my attention, and perhaps communicate with him.