§ Mr. D. E. Thomasasked the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will introduce legislation to ensure that suspects interviewed at police stations are in all cases permitted access to pen and paper with which to make their own contemporaneous notes of police interviews.
§ Mr. HurdClause 59 of the Police and Criminal Evidence Bill requires the Home Secretary to issue a code of practice in connection with the detention, treatment and questioning of persons by the police. A draft code was published to coincide with the introduction of the Bill on 27 October, and a copy is in the Library of the House. I see no need at present to make more extensive provision in regard to the matters raised by the hon. Gentleman than is contained in sections 6 and 13 of the draft code.
§ Mr. D. E. Thomasasked the Secretary of State for the Home Department (1) if he will introduce regulations to ensure that police transcripts of non-taped interviews with suspects will not be tendered as evidence in court, where the transcripts are unsigned and disputed by the defending party;
(2) whether, in police stations where the experimental tape-recording of interviews with suspects is to be undertaken, police transcripts of non-taped interviews will still be tendered as evidence in court even when they are unsigned and disputed by the defending party;
(3) if he will now bring forward proposals to amend the law so that police transcripts of non-taped interviews with suspects are made inadmissible as evidence in court, where the transcripts are unsigned and disputed by the defending party.
§ Mr. HurdAs is clear from the procedural guidance for the tape recording field trials—a copy of which is in the Library—there may be good reasons for not tape recording an interview, including an objection on the part of the person interviewed. It would not be right to exclude the possibility of the written record of an untaped interview being exhibited as evidence at a trial; although, where such evidence is admitted by the court, the weight given to it may well depend on whether the record of the interview was accepted at the time by the person interviewed as correct.
§ Mr. D. E. Thomasasked the Secretary of State for the Home Department (1) if he will extend the experiment in tape recording of interviews with suspects at police stations to include the South Wales police authority areas;
(2) if he will urgently introduce the tape recording of interviews with suspects at police stations when officers of serious crimes squads are involved in the interviews.
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§ Mr. HurdMy right hon. and learned Friend has no plans at present to do so. The timing of the introduction of tape recording on a wider basis than the field trials shortly to begin will depend on how they go.