§ Mr. Alex CarlileTo ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland if he will make it his policy to publish promptly research carried out by his Department into the changes in the right of silence introduced in Northern Ireland in 1988; and if he will make a statement.
§ Sir John WheelerWhen significant research is conducted within the Northern Ireland Office on criminal justice matters, it is normally made public at an early stage. When we commission work from external researchers, we are ready to consider sympathetically any proposal by the authors to publish their work.
In my reply to the hon. Member for Cardiff, South and Penarth (Mr. Michael) of 18 April 1994, Official Report, columns 393–94, I said that I was placing in the Library a summary of the findings of an analysis by the Northern Ireland Office of aspects of the operation and effect of the provisions of the Criminal Evidence (Northern Ireland) Order 1988. The further research into the operation and effects of the 1988 order mentioned in my reply is being conducted externally and has been delayed: when we receive it, we shall consider its publication in the light of the general policy set out above.