Britain's human rights record in Northern Ireland and elsewhere is under examination at hearings being conducted by a United Nations committee in Geneva this week.
Human rights groups have accused the British government of failure to act on previous UN recommendations, including calls for the repeal of emergency legislation and for the abolition of detention centres in Northern Ireland.
At the meeting of the UN Committee Against Torture, the British delegation was questioned about the compliance of its government with the UN Convention Against Torture and Degrading Treatment.
The committee, which is due to announce its formal conclusions on Thursday of this week, expressed concern at what it said was Britain's retention of special detention centres as well as at an estimated 25 per cent increase in the British prison population since 1995.
The committee's conclusions, which are handed down at the end of its sessions, are in the form of recommendations and are not binding on countries which are signatories to the UN Convention Against Torture and Degrading Treatment.
The human rights group Amnesty International has reported 68 deaths in police custody in the UK in the 12 months to the end of last March.
The British delegation said that 29 per cent of the deaths which occurred in police custody had resulted from the medical condition of inmates while 25 per cent had been caused by substance abuse.
The delegation also said that it shared the committee's concern at the increase in suicides in prison - the number in England and Wales is reported to have trebled during the past year - but it maintained that the prison suicide rate was lower in Britain than in many comparable European countries.
The committee also expressed concern at the use of plastic bullets by police and members of the security forces in Northern Ireland, but the British delegation responded by saying that the use of plastic baton rounds had decreased, with only 800 having been fired so far in 1998, compared to 6,900 in the whole of 1996.