§ Mr. Dubsasked the Secretary of State for the Home Department what communications there have been between his Department and the Northamptonshire police about checks on jury panels; what information was produced by the Northamptonshire police; and on what dates.
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§ Mr. WhitelawMy Department wrote to the chief constable of Northamptonshire on 1 May 1979 asking for a description of the force practice in checking jury panels. In his reply of 18 May, the chief constable indicated that the police checked each potential juror to see if he was disqualified, in which case the information was passed to the court authorities; if a check revealed other convictions which made it undesirable that a person should serve on the jury, this information would be passed to the prosecuting authorities to use at their discretion. As this information suggested that Northamptonshire was going beyond the guidelines, the Home Office wrote on 5 July to the Association of Chief Police Officers, who informed my Department on 20 July that the chief constable of Northamptonshire had reviewed his arrangements and that it could now be taken that all forces were keeping within the agreed limits. In the light of recent press reports, the Home Office wrote to the chief constable again on 26 February drawing attention to the previous correspondence and asking for an assurance that henceforth the arrangements in Northamptonshire would conform to the guidelines, and he has now confirmed that they will do so.