§ Lord McCLUSKEYasked Her Majesty's Government:
What feasibility studies have been carried out in England and Wales or Scotland since 1970 to assess the value and reliability of the use of recording equipment to provide a record of the interrogation of suspects by police officers or of voluntary statements by suspects to police officers; where the results of such studies are published; whether further such studies are in progress or planned; whether or not they have reached any conclusions about the cost, value and reliability of such techniques.
§ The PARLIAMENTARY UNDERSECRETARY of STATE, HOME OFFICE (Lord Belstead)A Home Office committee reported in October 1976 on the feasibility of an experiment in the tape-recording of police interrogations in England and Wales; its report was published as Cmnd. 6630. The Royal Commission on Criminal Procedure have commissioned further studies using overseas experience and the techniques of operational research, together with a practical experiment in tape-recording, and expect to receive a report early next year. The Thomson Committee on Criminal Procedure in Scotland carried out a limited experiment which was taken into consideration when they framed recommendations 21c and 22c in their second report (Cmnd 6218). A more comprehensive experiment involving the tape-recording of police interrogations in Dundee and Falkirk is likely to begin in April 1980 and will be monitored by the Scottish Home and Health Department.