Prime Minister Bill English says he does not know whether the recording at the centre of the Todd Barclay controversy still exists.
Mr English revealed at the weekend Mr Barclay, the Clutha-Southland MP, offered to play him the recording of an electorate staff member but he turned it down.
Watch Bill English speaking to Morning Report's Susie Ferguson here:
Allegations about the secret recording of electoral staffer Glenys Dickson have cost Mr Barclay his political career.
Mr English has not escaped unscathed however, with questions over how much he knew and when he knew it refusing to go away.
Mr English told Morning Report's Susie Ferguson he did not know if any recordings still existed or whether any had been destroyed, and he gave no advice to Todd Barclay about the matter.
"There's a whole lot of the detail of this I simply don't know," he said.
"It's all been covered by a 10-month police investigation.
"I didn't set out to investigate the issues because that was being covered by the police.
"I knew one thing about it, which was the conversation I had with Todd Barclay. I passed on the contents of that conversation to the relevant people."