Operation Midland

Debate between Baroness Williams of Trafford and Lord Lea of Crondall

Wednesday 18th March 2020 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Williams of Trafford]

My Lords, there is generally a presumption of anonymity but there may be policing reasons why, in the course of an investigation, police may release names. Quite often, it is the media that releases those names. There has been updated guidance for the media and the police on this.

[Lord Lea of Crondall (Non-Afl)]

My Lords, does the Minister believe that there is enough information in the public sphere about how such inquiries are supposed to be carried out? I took a particular interest in the Edward Heath case when I got a note through my letterbox in Crondall asking me to ring a Wiltshire police station. I did and was asked whether I had known Sir Edward Heath through the TUC and whether I had stayed at Chequers and so on. I was struck by how amateurish it all was. It is all very well our thinking about transparency in retrospect, but is enough known in the public arena about how such inquiries are supposed to be carried out?

[Baroness Williams of Trafford]

My Lords, I think that that is what IICSA has spent the last four years trying to establish.