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The law prevents the routine use of restraints to hold prisoners in police vans, Police Minister Judith Collins told Parliament yesterday.
Ms Collins was again questioned by Labour MPs about recent escapes from police custody.
She said she had asked police why they did not use restraints in their vans, as there are waist restraints in Corrections Department vans. She had received a report that restraints in police vans were against the law.
"I have found out that despite nine years of a Labour Government, that Government never took any steps to rectify the law that currently prevents police from, by routine, holding these prisoners in a restraint," she said. "And OSH [Occupational Safety and Health] laws require the police to have an escape hatch in every van."
Ms Collins has said she is considering whether law changes are necessary.
Labour's corrections spokesman, Clayton Cosgrove, said that under Labour escapes fell by 84 per cent over nine years and so far, under Ms Collins' watch, the rate of escapes from policy custody was the highest in three years.
Maori Party MP Te Ururoa Flavell asked Ms Collins when she was going to call a meeting of community leaders, including those in gangs, to look at "enduring solutions".
Ms Collins: "I have no intention of calling meetings with gangs."
- NZPA
