§ Sir Sydney ChapmanTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what assessment he has made of the adequacy of the operation of the law in relation to the prosecution of child abuse cases. [7629]
§ Mr. Maclean[holding answer 16 December 1996]The Government commissioned several independent research projects to look into the effectiveness of measures introduced by the Criminal Justice Acts of 1988 and 1991 to improve the handling of cases involving child witnesses. These examined the use of live television links for giving evidence and the use of video-recorded interviews for giving evidence-in-chief, and the speed of prosecutions for cases involving child witnesses. Further research has been commissioned to evaluate the effectiveness of training given to those involved in child abuse investigations and into the admissibility and sufficiency of evidence gathered during those investigations, the results of which will be available at the end of 1997.
The findings from the completed research have shown that the legislation, and other supporting measures introduced by the Government have improved the management of child abuse cases. The Government will continue to make further changes where we consider, in the light of research and other information, they will bring further improvements.