More disclosure of suspects' immigration status needed, Cooper says

Guidance for police on sharing the immigration status and ethnicity of crime suspects "needs to change", the home secretary has said, following calls for details to be released of two men charged over the alleged rape of a 12-year-old in Warwickshire.

Yvette Cooper told the BBC: "We do want to see more transparency in cases, we think local people do need to have more information."

The men under suspicion of the alleged rape are reportedly Afghan. Warwickshire County Council's Reform UK leader claims they are asylum seekers.

Police have not confirmed this. Reform UK leader Nigel Farage called the police's decision not to publish the details a "cover-up".

• What are the rules around police giving out a suspect's nationality?

Guidelines on disclosing personal information are being reviewed but Cooper said it is up to individual police forces and the Crown Prosecution Service to decide what is released.

Warwickshire Police has previously said once someone is charged with an offence, the force follows national guidance that does not include sharing ethnicity or immigration status.

The two men accused of the offence in Warwickshire are Ahmad Mulakhil, who has been charged with two counts of rape, and Mohammad Kabir, who has been accused of kidnap, strangulation and aiding and abetting the rape of a girl aged under 13.

Mr Mulakhil, 23, appeared before magistrates in Coventry on 28 July, and Mr Kabir, also 23, appeared in court on Saturday.

Both were remanded in custody.

In a letter to the home secretary and Warwickshire Police's Chief Constable, Reform's Warwickshire County Council leader George Finch claimed the police risked "disorder breaking out on the streets" of the county.

Responding to Finch, Chief Constable Alex Franklin-Smith said he was "confident that Warwickshire Police has treated this investigation seriously from the outset" and the force "did not and will not" cover up alleged criminality.

He said that the immigration status of the suspects is now public knowledge and that he has asked the Home Office to confirm the full immigration status of Mr Mulakhil and Mr Kabir.

In a statement, Warwickshire Police and Crime Commissioner Philip Seccombe said: "It is essential to state that policing decisions - such as whether to release details about a suspect - must follow national guidance and legal requirements."

He added that he would not speculate on the personal circumstances of those involved while court proceedings were active.

Speaking to BBC Breakfast on Tuesday about the alleged rape in Warwickshire, the home secretary said it was "an operational decision" how much information could be revealed in the middle of a live investigation but said "we do want to see greater transparency".

She later told BBC Radio 4's Today programme: "We do think the guidance needs to change".

Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch agreed that the ethnicity and immigration status of suspects should be revealed.

Badenoch warned that the public would "start losing faith in the justice system and police if they feel things are being hidden."

She said that police and home secretary were "saying different things" on the issue and that she is "not convinced we'll see that transparency."

'Most officers want that information out there'

Emily Spurrell, chair of the Association Of Police And Crime Commissioners, told the BBC that police had had "a very difficult job in these kinds of instances".

"Most officers I speak to want to get that information out there, they know the public want to know what's going on, who's being held to account," she added.

But she said police were trying to "walk that line" of going public with information and ensuring suspects had access to a fair trial.

The Law Commission is conducting a review into what information or opinions someone should lawfully be able to publish after a suspect has been arrested.

Following a government request, it has agreed to speed up its reporting on the parts of the review that relate to what the government and law enforcement can do to counter misinformation, including where there are possible public order consequences of failing to do so.

The Southport murders committed by Axel Rudakubana in July last year led to speculation about the suspect's ethnicity and immigration status.

False rumours spread online that he was a Muslim asylum seeker, fuelling widespread rioting in the aftermath of the killings.

An independent watchdog concluded in March that failure to share basic facts about the Southport killer led to "dangerous fictions" which helped spark rioting.

Jonathan Hall KC, the UK's independent reviewer of terrorism legislation, said it would have been "far better" for the authorities to share more accurate detail on the arrest of Rudakubana.

He said the "ineffectual near silence" from police, prosecutors and the government after the attacks led to disinformation that sparked the rioting.

Merseyside Police took a different approach last June after a car drove into crowds during Liverpool's Premier League victory parade - they confirmed soon after the incident that they had arrested a "white British man".