Mr. Peter Bruinveilsasked the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will make a further statement on the outcome of the experiments in the use of tape recordings of police questioning of suspects.
§ Mr. BrittanMy predecessor announced in April that the steering committee established to devise and oversee the tape recording field trials, was producing procedural guidance for the practitioners who would be involved in the experiment. This procedural guidance is published today: copies have been placed in the Library and are available from the Vote Office. I am extremely grateful to all members of the steering committee, especially to members of HM judiciary, the police service and the other professions, for the contribution they are continuing to make to this exercise, and for their commitment to the success of the field trials.
The field trials will take place in six areas: Croydon, Holborn, Leicester, South Tyneside, The Wirral and Winchester. It is intended that tape recording will commence in most areas in January and in all by the end of February. While the national steering committee will oversee the experiment centrally, oversight in each area will be the responsibility of local steering committees under judicial chairmen. Again, I am most grateful for the contribution to the experiment being made by those who have agreed to take part in these local committees.
Clause 53 of the Police and Criminal Evidence Bill, published today, places upon me a duty to issue a code of practice in connection with the tape recording of police interviews with suspects, and to make an order requiring tape recordings to take place. I expect that the procedural guidance for the field trials, amended as necessary in the light of comments received and of experience of the trials, will form the basis for the eventual code of practice.