John Wadham, director of Liberty, said:
"Police and prosecutors are under immense and growing political pressure to get convictions above all else. We have to protect defendants properly, to ensure that this isn't the wrong 'result', and that we don't send more innocent people to prison. For these reasons we must be sceptical about the proposals made today.

"The criminal justice system isn't a game - because there is always a real danger that the system will accuse and, sometimes convict, the wrong person. The police and prosecution already hold most of the cards in the criminal justice system - rightly so. That's balanced by necessary protections to try and ensure that we do have fair trials and we don't imprison innocent people. We tinker with those protections at our peril.

"The police have regularly demanded changes to the law to make their job easier. In many cases their demands to take away defendants' rights and protections have been successful but the erosions of the last 20 years have shown very clearly that eroding rights doesn't crack crime".