asked the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will make a statement on the Metropolitan Police's development of tests to detect the presence of aminopeptidase in alleged rape and indecent assault cases; and if such tests have yet been used as evidence in any such cases.

Research was carried out at the Metropolitan Police laboratory to establish whether the presence of leucine aminopeptidase could be used as a presumptive test in cases of alleged rape and indecent assault but it has been abandoned in favour of a more promising test. The aminopeptidase test has not, I understand, been used in evidence presented to the courts in England and Wales.