HC Deb 15 March 1984 vol 56 c490
1. Mr. Andrew F. Bennett

asked the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many people involved in road accidents in the Metropolitan police area had personal property detained after the accident.

The Secretary of State for the Home Department (Mr. Leon Brittan)

This information is not collected centrally.

Mr. Bennett

Will the Home Secretary confirm that the Metropolitan police handbook gives specific instructions about what officers should do when there is an accident and an individual's property is found'' Will he confirm that chapter 18, paragraph 13, makes it quite clear that the duty of the police officer is to take any personal property to the hospital and get a receipt for it? Will he say why that did not happen in the case of Duncan Campbell?

Mr. Brittan

I have no reason to believe that anything inconsistent with the normal instructions occurred in that case. Indeed, the contents of the panniers on Mr. Campbell's cycle were examined as part of the routine process of checking and listing property that comes into police custody.

Mr. James Lamond

Can the Home Secretary say whether our ambassador in Moscow was sent for by the Russian Government to hear their concern expressed about this violation of human rights under the Helsinki final act that occurred when Mr. Duncan Campbell's property was taken?

Mr. Brittan

No, Sir.

Mr. Kaufman

Is the Home Secretary therefore saying that the normal instructions—he used that phrase—to the Metropolitan police are to rifle the belongings of people who are injured in accidents? Why was it that it was just the one individual who had the accident whose belongings were rifled? Will the right hon. and learned Gentleman, as the police authority for London, give instructions that this form of police-state activity should not take place?

Mr. Brittan

I do not think that the right hon. Gentleman seriously believes a word of what he said. He must appreciate that it is the duty of the police to snake arrangements for the safe-keeping of the possessions of the victims of road accidents, and that part of that duty is to register and make a list of the property that is taken into possession as a result of road accidents.