§ Mr. FrenchTo ask the Parliamentary Secretary, Lord Chancellor's Department in how many court proceedings concerning child abuse video-taped evidence has been admitted.
Mr. John M. TaylorThe provision for the giving in evidence of a video recording of an interview with a child witness in certain specified proceedings is contained in section 54 of the Criminal Justice Act 1991. This provision came into force on 1 October 1992. Since that date there have been nine cases in the Crown court where applications under section 54 of the Criminal Justice Act 1991 to admit a pre-recorded video interview with a child witness have been granted. In two of these cases the defendant pleaded guilty and, therefore, the video tapes were not required in court.
§ Mr. FrenchTo ask the Parliamentary Secretary, Lord Chancellor's Department if he will list those courts where video-taped evidence has been(a) admitted and (b) refused in child abuse cases.
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Mr. John M. TaylorThe provision for the giving in evidence of a video recording in certain specified proceedings is contained in section 54 of the Criminal Justice Act 1991. This provision came into force on 1 October 1992. Since that date pre-recorded video-taped interviews with child witnesses have been admitted and used in evidence in proceedings in the Crown court at Cardiff, Croydon, Newcastle and Wolverhampton. According to centrally collected statistics, no applications to admit video-taped evidence in child witness proceedings have been refused.