§ Mr. Meacherasked the Secretary of State for the Home Department what are the names of the 12 persons who have died during the last 10 years in England and Wales in the course of helping the police with their inquiries; and if he will list the police stations where they died, their dates of death, and their causes of death as stated on the medical certificates.
§ Mr. WhitelawAs the hon. Member is aware, the term
helping the police with their inquirieshas no legal meaning and may be used to cover a number of situations. But for the purposes of the exercise on deaths in custody during 1970 to 1979, chief officers of police were asked to regard all such persons as being under arrest, and any deaths were accordingly included in the tables supplied to and published by the home affairs committee in its report on deaths in police custody.The reports which I have received from chief officers of police indicate that of the 274 deaths during the period only three were of persons not under arrest, 436W the respective case numbers in the tables being 5/71, 6/76 and 4/79. I have previously made clear that, having regard to the position of the relatives, I would not think it right to publish the names of persons who died in custody. But the names of the three deceased are included in the material I have previously sent to the hon. Member, and the other information requested is contained in the tables published by the Select Committee.