§ Mr. Meacherasked the Secretary of State for the Home Department why a check was made on all outgoing telephone calls from the home telephone number, 01–340–5283, of the hon. Member for Oldham, West at the time when he was making inquiries into deaths in police custody; for what reason a police request was made for this information; and on what authority.
§ Mr. HurdI assume that the hon. Member is referring to the provision of metering information, that is, records of the numbers dialled from a particular telephone and of the time and duration of the calls. Neither the Metropolitan police nor British Telecom have any record of a request being made for the provision of such information in relation to the number quoted, or of any such check having been carried out.
§ Mr. Meacherasked the Secretary of State for the Home Department how widespread is the practice of the 476W Metropolitan police of checking on the telephone calls made from private lines in circumstances where no crime is suspected.
§ Mr. HurdI assume that the hon. Member is referring to the provision of metering information, that is, records of the numbers dialled from a particular telephone and of the time and duration of the calls. I understand that it is British Telecom's policy that such factual information may be provided in response to a request from the police if the information is vital to police inquiries in a matter of serious crime and cannot be obtained from other sources, or where the police are investigating calls made by fraudulent methods with intent to avoid due payment or other unlawful abuse of the telephone system—which includes, for example, indecent, menacing and annoyance calls. The police would have no occasion to ask to be provided with metering information where no criminal offence was being investigated.