§ Mrs. Renée Shortasked the Secretary of State for the Home Department (1) what action he intends taking in the light of the European Court's judgment in 1978 that adequate and effective guarantees against abuse must be made in the area of police and Government sponsored listening-in on private telephone conversations;
(2) if, in the light of the recent High Court judgment on the activities of the police and the Post Office authorities, he will introduce legislation to clarify the law on telephone tapping.
§ Mr. WhitelawI am aware of the judgment of the Vice-Chancellor in Malone v. Commissioner of Police, which of course contains a number of references to the European Convention on Human Rights and the European Court judgment referred to. The right hon. Member for Leeds, South (Mr. Rees) had initiated a study of the implications of the Vice-Chancellor's judgment. I have directed that this study should be continued to its completion. I will inform the House of my conclusions in due course.