MPs: Police need to control leaks

Sunday, 18 January 2009 2:00 PM

By Ian Dunt

The police need to control the amount of leaks to the media coming from their senior officers, MPs have said.

The comments come in a report by the home affairs committee, and look set to prolong tension between the police and parliament following the arrest of Damian Green, the shadow immigration minister.

"While it may not always be illegal for police to leak to the media it is certainly wrong and can be very damaging to an investigation or to an innocent individual - remember we are talking often about people who have not been charged with any crime or wrongdoing," said committee chairman Keith Vaz.

"Almost as important, it damages the reputation and integrity of the police themselves."
The MPs took a particularly strong stance against police tipping off the press before an individual was even been charged.

The report went on to stress there are very few situations where briefing off the record is in the public interest.

But MPs did welcome recent moves to standardise the level of information given to journalists across all the forces.

Liberal Democrat home affairs spokesman Chris Huhne said: "Public announcements are better than private whispers.

"This is a timely message that the police should open up and that the media should grow up."

It is not usually actually illegal for the police to leak to media - except in cases of Official Secrets or where it compromises a serious crime investigation - but it does breach police discipline regulations.

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