§ Lord Lester of Herne Hill asked Her Majesty's Government:
§ Further to the statement by the Lord Bach on 12 May (HL Deb, col. 378), when and in what circumstances Ministers were first informed of the practice of hooding; what was the nature of the practice; and what were the reasons for its abandonment. [HL2835]
§ Lord Bach:The hooding of detainees for the purposes of arrest or transit was a standard procedure for UK troops prior to Operation TELIC and, as such, was not specifically brought to the attention of Ministers. The UK believes that hooding during arrest. and transit is acceptable when there is a strong military reason, for example to offer security to our own forces and locations and to provide protection to the detainee (through the prevention of identification by other detainees).
The practice of hooding was discontinued when there was no longer a military justification for continuing to do so.