§ Mr. MullinTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will list the responses he received to his consultation on the proposed review body to deal with alleged miscarriages of justice and indicate which of them favoured leaving investigations entirely in the hands of the police.
§ Mr. MacleanFifty individuals and organisations responded to the Government's discussion paper "Criminal Appeals and the Establishment of a Criminal Cases Review Authority". Of the 23 responses which considered the alternative approaches to investigation canvassed in paragraphs 54 to 64 of the paper, 10 favoured inquiries by police forces overseen by the review body; four favoured the secondment of police officers and other investigators to the review body; seven favoured a mixture of these two approaches; and two proposed the exclusion of police officers from any investigation by the review body. Neither the discussion paper nor any respondent to it suggested that investigations should be left entirely in the hands of police forces. The Government have concluded that the review body in investigating cases put to it should have power to commission inquiries by police officers, where appropriate from an outside force, who would work in accordance with the review body's specific requirements and would report to it.