WHEN Defence Secretary Geoff Hoon makes a statement to MPs today on the alleged abuse of Iraqi prisoners, he is not expected to agree to the release of a Red Cross report detailing the mistreatment of detainees.

Why not? What possible justification is there for keeping it under wraps?

It is time the Government realised that people are tired of being patronised by spin and secrecy, the combined effect of which has been a serious erosion of public confidence in Tony Blair's administration.

No matter how isolated the abuse of prisoners may be, it is clear that it has gone on at an unacceptable level.

The International Committee of the Red Cross handed ministers a copy of its report weeks before the storm erupted over pictures of alleged abuse published in the Daily Mirror.

And the seriousness of the situation facing the Government was underlined again last night with the revelation that Amnesty International had issued a warning about the torture of prisoners in UK custody a year ago.

Britain and America went into Iraq to halt breaches of human rights, only to find themselves now accused of torturing prisoners.

We therefore have to know how much abuse there has been, and to what extent the British Government knew about it.

We have no wish to see the security of British troops - many of whom have done an outstanding job in Iraq - placed in jeopardy. But the truth has to be laid bare.

If the abuse has been at the hands of a tiny minority of rogue elements, let us hear it from an independent body which has the public's trust - not a Government which, sadly, does not.