§ Mr. AlexanderTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what action he has taken in the light of recent representations submitted to him about the safety of the convictions of the Birmingham Six.
§ Mr. WaddingtonI have asked the chief constable of the West Midlands police for a report on a number of specific634W points which have been put to me recently about the safety of the convictions of the Birmingham Six. I understand that the chief constable has decided to ask the Devon and Cornwall constabulary, which carried out investigations in 1987 into certain aspects of the case, to investigate the matters now under consideration. In the light of the outcome of those investigations, I will give further consideration to whether my intervention in the convictions of the six men would be justified.