6 SAUNDERS v. UNITED KINGDOM JUDGMENT 24. On 5 February 1987 Mr John Wood, who had been appointed head of legal services at the CPS, appointed a team of counsel to advise on the criminal aspects of the investigation. Transcripts and documents from the inspectors were passed on to the team after receipt and consideration by the DTI. 25. The applicant was interviewed by the inspectors on nine occasions: on 10-11, 20 and 26 February, 4-5 March, 6 May and 11-12 June 1987. He was accompanied by his legal representatives throughout these interviews. C. The criminal proceedings 26. During the first week of May 1987 the police were formally asked by the DPP’s office to carry out a criminal investigation. The transcripts and documents obtained as a result of the inspectors’ interviews were then passed on to the police. 27. The applicant was subsequently charged with numerous offences relating to the illegal share-support operation and, together with his co-defendants, was arraigned before the Crown Court on 27 April 1989. In view of the large number of counsel and the number of defendants two separate trials were subsequently ordered by the trial judge in the Crown Court on 21 September 1989. 28. From 6 to 16 November 1989 the court held a voir dire (submissions on a point of law in the absence of the jury) following the application of one of the applicant’s co-defendants, Mr Parnes, to rule the DTI transcripts inadmissible. Mr Parnes argued, principally, that the statements obtained during three interviews before the inspectors should be excluded (i) pursuant to section 76 of the Police and Criminal Evidence Act 1984 ("PACE") on the basis that they had been obtained by oppression or in circumstances which were likely to render them unreliable; (ii) pursuant to section 78 of PACE because of the adverse effect the admission of the evidence would have on the fairness of the proceedings having regard to the circumstances in which it was obtained. In a ruling given on 21 November 1989, the trial judge (Mr Justice Henry) held that the transcripts were admissible. He stated that it was common ground that the interviews were capable of being "confessions" as defined in section 82 (1) of PACE. He found that as a matter of construction of the 1985 Act inspectors could ask witnesses questions that tended to incriminate them, the witnesses were under a duty to answer such questions and the answers were admissible in criminal proceedings. He rejected Mr Parnes’s assertion that the inspectors should have given a warning against self-incrimination. He was satisfied that there was no element of oppression involved in the obtaining of the evidence and that the answers