§ Mr. Atkinsonasked the Secretary of State for the Home Department if the police raid and mass searching of 300 employees on Friday 30th July at 21.00 hours at the International Telephone Exchange, Wren House, London EC4, represents a new policy on the part of the police; and if he will call for a report as to what discussions took place between the police and trade union representatives, on how many employees were stripped, if agreement was reached beforehand, on what quantity and kind of drugs were found during the raid, on how many people have been charged with an offence and on how many policemen and dogs were used on this occasion.
§ Dr. SummerskillThe answer to the first part of the Question is "No."
1042WI understand from the Commissioner of Police for the City of London that following the receipt of information 60 police officers with six dogs entered the premises of the International Telephone Exchange on 30th July under the authority of a search warrant granted under the Misuse of Drugs Act 1971. Representatives of the Union of Post Office Workers and the Post Office Management Staffs Association were told what was happening. One person was stripped during the search, and he and six others were arrested and subsequently released on bail under Section 38 of the Magistrates' Courts Act 1952 pending the result of the analysis of substances found during the search.
No decision on charges have yet been made.
§ Mr. Atkinsonasked the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will arrange meetings between the police and the TUC to discuss possible infringements of employees' rights during mass police raids of factories or workplaces and the forcible stripping and searching of individual trade unionists.
§ Dr. SummerskillNo. Chief officers of police will, of course, investigate any complaints made to them about the conduct of members of their force.
§ Mr. Atkinsonasked the Secretary of State for the Home Department on how many other occasions during the last two years raids similar to that carried out at the International Telephone Exchange, Wren House, London EC4, on Friday 30th July at 21.00 hours, have been carried out at other factories and workplaces; and what was the outcome of each raid.
§ Dr. SummerskillThis information could be obtained only by asking all chief officers to go through the records of the operations of their force, and I do not think the expenditure involved would be justified.
§ Mr. Atkinsonasked the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will call for a report on how many occasions during the last 12 months the police carried out mass raids and personal stripping and searching of individual clients at Mayfair gaming salons.
1043W
§ Dr. SummerskillI understand from the Commissioner of Police of the Metropolis that his officers have occasion to enter such establishments in the course of investigation into suspected drugs and other offences but that no large scale raid has taken place in the last 12 months.