HC Deb 24 May 1979 vol 967 cc1211-3
6. Mr. Canavan

asked the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland whether he will make a statement about the Bennett report.

The Minister of State, Northern Ireland Office (Mr. Michael Alison)

Like our predecessors, we accept the broad conclusions of the Bennett committee and endorse its general approach. We also accept the recommendations that closed circuit television should be installed in interview rooms, and that terrorist suspects should have right of access to a solicitor after 48 hours.

Suggestions have been made that the Bennett committee found evidence of widespread ill-treatment by the police in Northern Ireland, but I am satisfied that this is not the case. In fact, there were only 15 cases falling into the category of injuries sustained while in police custody and not self-inflicted, out of the total of some 3,000 people who were detained in 1977–78.

In order to clear matters up once for all, it has been arranged for the Bennett committee to identify the cases in question, so that all the medical evidence relating to them, which was before the committee, can be brought to the attention of the Director of Public Prosecutions for Northern Ireland, who will consider whether in the light of that evidence any prosecutions should be brought against members of the RUC.

Mr. Canavan

Will the Minister ensure that appropriate action is taken by the Director of Public Prosecutions to bring charges against police officers as a result of the evidence of maltreatment of prisoners produced to the Bennett committee and forwarded to the DPP?

Mr. Alison

The evidence was that there were some cases in which injuries were not self-inflicted, but this is not the same thing as saying that an unlawful assault had occurred. Of course, if there is evidence of an unlawful assault, naturally the Director will prosecute.

Mr. Biggs-Davison

Is it not the case that the appearance of the Bennett report has been used to cast a general slur on the Royal Ulster Constabulary? While abuses of police power cannot be tolerated by this House and must be punished, do not police officers have the same right as other of Her Majesty's subjects not to be condemned unheard?

Mr. Alison

I endorse entirely what my hon. Friend has said. I think that the figures that I have quoted show that in the overwhelming number of cases the RUC carries out an almost impossibly difficult task, according to law, with exemplary dedication and precision.

Mr. Fitt

Does the hon. Gentleman recall that grave dissatisfaction and suspicion were expressed at the time of publication of the Bennett report and on the way in which it was received in this House? In many ways, the publication of that report and the attitude adopted by the then Secretary of State for Northern Ireland may have been responsible for the change of Government that subsequently took place. Is the hon. Gentleman further aware—I say this with full knowledge of the effect of what I am about to say—that many of his colleagues on the Government side of the House are aware that his late hon. Friend, the late Airey Neave, did not accept the conclusions of the Bennett report and made that clear in conversations which he had with his hon. Friends? In this situation, will the Minister now, in deference to the wishes of his late hon. Friend who was so brutally murdered, carry out a full investigation into every aspect of the Bennett report?

Mr. Alison

I think that the hon. Gentleman will have noted the positive point that we have made about the installation of closed-circuit televisions in the cells. This will have an important effect upon the proper supervision of the interrogation procedure. But, having said that, I must go on to say that the Bennett committee was a committee to consider police practice and procedures. It was not judicial. If there is any evidence of specific cases of unlawful assault, the Director will certainly prosecute.

Mr. Concannon

I should like to give a general welcome to right hon. and hon. Members on their appointments to the Northern Ireland posts. However, I am left wondering what they did wrong to land up there.

With regard to the Bennett report, quite a number of recommendations were made. Does the hon. Gentleman have any idea of when the Government will come to any conclusions on the rest of the recommendations?

Mr. Alison

I am grateful for what the right hon. Gentleman has said. I do not know what he did wrong to remain in a Northern Ireland post for five years.

The detailed recommendations of the Bennett report require quite a lot of consultations, particularly on the rather more technical aspects. We are carrying those forward as rapidly as we can. It will be a little while yet before we are in a position to take specific steps.