§ Mr. ButcherTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will review rules of evidence procedures, exchange of statutory requirements and court procedures in order to provide better protection of witnesses who are called to aid the prosecution of violent offenders.
§ Mr. JackA number of safeguards have been introduced to protect victims and other witnesses from intimidation or fear of intimidation. These include measures to prevent an individual's address appearing as a matter of course on witness statements; to delay, except in certain circumstances, disclosure of the address until the start of summary trial, full committal or Crown court trial; to allow child witnesses to give evidence in certain cases by closed-circuit television and to allow a video recording of an earlier investigative interview with a child witness to be accepted as evidence in chief; and to provide anonymity for victims of rape and other specified sexual offences. The operation of these, and other, safeguards is kept under general review, but we have no present plans for a more formal exercise.