§ Mr. Gorstasked the Secretary of State for the Home Department if, as a matter of urgency, he will review and, if necessary, suspend the arrangements for the exchange of information in force between police forces in the United Kingdom and Sweden, in the light of the Swedish authorities having declined to give assurances that information exchanged on a police-to-police basis, the subject of a specific request from official British sources that it be not used as evidence in court proceedings, will not be so used.
§ Mr. HurdThe police in this country decide what, if any, information to give to the police in other countries, including Sweden, to assist them in criminal investigations. It is in the public interest that such exchanges should take place, but I have asked Her Majesty's Chief Inspector of Constabulary to consider whether general guidance to chief officers is needed.