GOVERNMENT is amending the 1994 Evidence Act to permit the use in court of documents recording messages produced by telecommunications apparatus and carriers providing international telecoms services as well as tape recorded confessions.

The Evidence (Amendment) Bill 2007 is one of two new measures standing in the name of Attorney-General Dale Marshall on the Order Paper for today's sitting of the House of Assembly which starts at 10 a.m.

The other is an amendment to the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act to make further provision for the protection of animals.

The telecoms section specifies that the "hearsay rule" would not apply in relation to the identity of the person from whom or on whose behalf the message was sent; the date, time and place from which it was sent; and the identity of the person to whom the message was addressed.

A new provision would make confessions or admissions inadmissible unless they were made in circumstances where it was reasonably practicable to tape-record them.