Mr. W. E. Garrettasked the Secretary of State for the Home Department what further consideration he has given to a possible experiment in the tape recording of police interrogations in the light of advice which he has received from the Royal Commission on Criminal Procedure.
434Wthis; and in how many cases persons have vanished or failed to be deported for any stated reasons.
§ Mr. JohnI regret that all the information requested could only be provided at disproportionate cost.
The available information for the last five years is as follows:
§ Mr. Merlyn ReesThe House will be aware from my reply to a Question by my hon. Friend the Member for Stockport, North (Mr. Bennett) on 11th April —[Vol. 947, c. 344]—that my Department submitted a memorandum to the Roy al Commission on a possible experiment in the tape-recording of police interrogations: a copy was placed in the Library. The chairman of the Royal Commission, Sir Cyril Philips, has now informed me that the Commission regards as central to its terms of reference the way in which police interviews and interrogations are controlled, and that there are a number of critical questions on which it needs to obtain further information more quickly than would be possible from an experiment of the kind envisaged in the report of the Home Office Committee (Cmnd. 6630). Subject to further consideration and consultation, the Commission therefore proposes to undertake a modified study using overseas experience and the techniques of operational research combined with some experimental use of tape-recording. Its focus will be on the practical and cost implications of tape-recording and it will be designed to produce some results by the end of next year. I have told the chairman of the Commission that I support its proposal. In the meantime, I have no plans for a separate experiment.