asked the Minister of State for Defence on how many occasions since those mentioned in the Compton Report detainees in Northern Ireland have been subjected to hooding, restricted diet, noise and wallstanding techniques.

There have been no occasions since those mentioned in the Compton Report on which it has been necessary to interrogate detainees using the techniques referred to in the Report.

asked the Minister of State for Defence whether he was informed of the intention to employ the wallstanding, hooding, restricted diet and electronic noise techniques on prisoners as described in the Compton Report.

Ministers were aware of the principles underlying interrogation in depth, of the safeguards against violent or humiliating treatment which had been laid down in 1965 and 1967, and of the need to preserve the security of both detainees and guards. They were also aware of the importance of obtaining operational intelligence and that to assist this, detainees were liable to be subjected to a measure of fatigue, isolation and noise. They were not acquainted with the detailed methods that were employed.

asked the Minister of State for Defence if he will make a statement on the circumstances in which the Army were called to Cliftonville Circus, Belfast, on Saturday, 27th November, when terrorists opened fire on policemen investigating a road accident, injuring a number of civilians.

At about 5.15 p.m., two police constables were investigating an accident at the junction of Old Park Road and Alliance Avenue when approximately 20 shots were fired from a car parked nearby. Troops arrived within three minutes but the terrorists had already escaped, having seriously wounded a man and a woman and slightly wounded two women and both police constables. The woman seriously wounded has since died.