Police Interviews (Tape Recording) (Hansard, 1 November 1983)

§ Mr. Younger

The experimental tape recording of police questioning began in Dundee and Falkirk in 1980 and was extended to Aberdeen and Glasgow in the course of 1982. Information is also being gathered in two areas where tape recording does not take place—Edinburgh and Hamilton—for comparative costing purposes. Some 6,000 interviews have now been tape recorded. A relatively small proportion of suspects — some 6 per cent.— have refused to be interviewed on tape. Technical or operational difficulties have affected 6 per cent. of the interviews recorded. Only 2 per cent. of tapes —or transcripts derived from tapes—obtained in the 70 per cent. of cases reported to the procurator fiscal for prosecution have subsequently been used in proceedings in court. Reasons for this are that the use of a tape in court at the instance of the prosecution will only arise where(a) proceedings are taken against the suspect who is interviewed; (b) the suspect pleads not guilty; and there is a tendency for tapes containing incriminating statements to be followed by a guilty plea; (c) the recording is of an incriminating reply which is relevant to the charge being tried.

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Where there is sufficient other evidence and the admissibility of the tape recording is doubtful, the prosecution may decide that use of the tape is neither necessary nor wise. Whether it is right to do so in a particular case is a matter for the individual prosecutor's judgment. None the less, the Lord Advocate has asked procurators fiscal to try to increase the numbers of tapes or transcripts put before the court in the hope that questions of admissibility arising out of the use of such evidence may be tested.

The collection of experimental data on the police element of the experiment will end in December—except for the collection of cost data—but my Department will continue to monitor the subsequent progress through the prosecution and court stages of cases which began with a taped interview. This will require a further nine months to enable any court proceedings to be completed; and I expect the formal analysis of the impact of tape recording on the criminal justice system, and on the attitudes and work loads of participants in about 18 months' time. It is the Government's intention to publish the results of the experiment in the form of a consultation paper which will be widely distributed for comment before any final decisions are taken about the future of tape recording of police interviews in Scotland.

Whole-time Equivalent Staff^*
	as at 30 September	as at 30
	1978	1979	1980	1981	1982	June1983
Medical/dental (excluding locums)	1,750	1,820	1,820	1,850	1,910	NA
Nursing/midwifery (excluding agency)	18,270	19,550	20,060	21,170	21,580	21,640
Ancillary†	8,380	8,720	8,690	8,800	8,750	8,690
Administrative and Clerical	4,920	5,410	5,320	5,460	5,480	5,590
Professional and Technical	3,000	3,190	3,250	3,360	3,550	3,610
Others	2,110	2,180	2,220	2,270	2,300	2,280
Total	38,420	40,860	41,360	42,910	43,560	NA
Of which non-medical	36,670	39,050	39,540	41,060	41,660	41,800

Notes:

^* Figures are shown independently rounded to the nearest 10, hence the sum of the staff groups may differ slightly from the totals.

† Includes domestic, catering and laundry staff, porters, telephonists etc.

The overall manpower target which was settled with Wessex RHA for March 1984 is 43,915 (wte) which represents an increase of 40 staff over March 1983.