Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether her Department has made an assessment of the potential (a) merits and (b) feasibility of making video recording standard practice across all investigation stages of a crime.

Codes E and F of the Policing and Criminal Evidence Act 1984 governs the conduct video and audio recording of interviews of non-terrorism suspects, including appropriate safeguards. All interviews of terrorist suspects in England and Wales must be audio and visual recorded. The use of video recording for other stages of the investigatory process is an operational matter for the police. Research has not been conducted on the impact of broader recording practices.

The College of Policing published research on the impact of body worn video on outcomes. https://whatworks.college.police.uk/Research/Documents/BWV_Report.pdf This found that a significantly higher proportion of incidents attended by officers wearing a camera resulted in a charge rather than other criminal justice outcomes (e.g. cautions).