§ Mr. FraserTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will investigate allegations by the Criminal Law Solicitors Association that telephone calls from solicitors to prisoners held by the City of London police are recorded and stored on tape.
246W
§ Mr. Peter LloydI understand from the Commissioner of Police for the City of London that until recently all telephone calls to custody suites were tape recorded at a point after they had left the public network. This was done for operational purposes and overlooked the fact that privileged conversations between solicitors and their clients were also covered. Recordings of privileged conversations were never listened to by police officers and the tapes were held centrally in conditions of strict security, with access controlled by a senior officer and requiring knowledge of confidential codes. As soon as it was realised that privileged conversations were on tape, separate telephone lines which are not subject to tape recording were installed in custody suites.