§ Mr. SpellerTo ask the Secretary of State for Transport if he will make a further statement on what was done with the Coastguard and British Telecom tapes of calls relating to the accidental drowning of Mark Woodward on 16 August 1989, following the coroner's inquest.
§ Mr. McLoughlinThe multi-track tapes that recalled the content and timing of all telephone and radio messages to and from Coastguard stations were wiped clean one month after the coroner's inquest. Up to this time these tapes would have been available for examination should this have been requested. For the benefit of the inquest certain extracts of the tapes were taken, in cassette form, and these are currently held by the police, following their inquiry. These tapes will be returned to the Department's solicitor shortly and will be made available to interested parties. But also it should be noted that in cassette form the content is incomplete and cannot be linked to accurate time. The question of the British Telecom tapes is one which should be addressed to BT in the north Devon area.