Society of Editors’ boss Bob Satchwell has welcomed comments by the Attorney General that the police should confirm the names of suspects when they have already been identified by journalists.

Attorney General Dominic Grieve told ITN there were circumstances where there might be good reasons for arrested suspects to have their names publicised.

He asid:  “Clearly, if the press have got to know who somebody is who’s been arrested and are publicising that, then clearly it might be very sensible for the police to confirm that fact.

“It’s a balancing exercise and I don’t think one can be prescriptive of what you should do in every case… But under certain circumstances that might be a good reason why the person under arrest should have their name publicised.”

SoE executive director Bob commented:  “The Attorney General’s intervention in this on-going debate is welcome but the real issue is that the the new police guidelines retain old ‘tell the public as little as possible’ attitudes that should be replaced by a default switch set to recognise that the public has a right to know unless there is an extremely good reason for not telling them.”

The College of Policing issued guidelines last month stating that names should not be revealed except in exceptional circumstances.