ABSTRACT
Throughout all stages in Parliament, opposition MPs and peers expressed concern about the erosion of the right to silence and moved numerous amendments, frequently praying in aid the findings and conclusions of the Royal Commission on Criminal Justice, which recommended that ‘adverse inferences should not be drawn from silence at the police station’ (Cmnd 2263, July 1993:54). However, on every occasion, the government simply out-voted any dissent-for example, defeating an amendment requiring that suspects should have had the opportunity of legal advice before their silence could be taken into account in court. Indeed, it is clear that the government was unwilling to accept amendments to the bill, whether from the two opposition parties or eminent law lords, on any of its wide range of proposals.
