§ Mr. Stuart Hollandasked the Secretary of State for the Home Department (1) if he will publish in full his Department's guidance on the use of entrapment techniques by the police; when this guidance was last brought to the attention of the Commissioner of Police of the Metropolis; and how it is brought to the attention of police constables;
(2) at what level in the Metropolitan police the decision to entrap homosexual men in Earl's Court was taken.
§ Mr. HurdGuidance is contained in paragraph 1.92 of the current Home Office consolidated circular to the police on crime and kindred matters, a copy of which is in the92W Library. The principle enunciated in that guidance, that no member of a police force should counsel, incite or procure the commission of a crime, is repeated in Metropolitan police general orders and also in the instruction book which is issued to all Metropolitan police officers on their appointment to the force. A copy of the instruction book is in the Library.
I understand from the Commissioner of Police of the Metropolis that any use of officers in plain clothes for the purposes of keeping observation on suspected male importuners requires the authority of a deputy assistant commissioner.