In terms of the process of interviewing children in the Barnehus, the Committee heard that:
only the police interviewer and the child would normally be present in the interview room; recording equipment is discreet and controlled remotely
representatives from other agencies including police lawyers (prosecutors) and investigators, child protection services and Statens Barnehus employees (therapists) would observe the recording of the interview in real time in a separate room
towards the end of the interview, the police interviewer would take a break to check with the other agencies present whether any further questions should be asked of the child
the child would not be pressured to answer questions and further interviews could take place if necessary, although these would be conducted by the same interviewer and would not require the child to repeat evidence already given
time limits require the first interview to take place within weeks of the incident being reported to the police
usually the defence would not be present to observe this first interview (unless the accused had already been charged)
once a suspect was charged, the defence would be given access to the recording of the interview as soon as possible and could then request a supplementary interview
the decision to allow a supplementary interview would be made by the police lawyer, with any supplementary interview being conducted by the same interviewer
The view of those working at the Statens Barnehus was that the initial interview tended to be robust enough so that supplementary interviews were not required.