Detention, Treatment and Questioning

A code of practice on detention, treatment and questioning is one of four codes, which the Home Secretary has issued under the 1984 Act.

Failure to comply with the provisions of these codes can render a police officer liable to disciplinary proceedings.

An arrested person has a statutory right to consult a solicitor and to ask the police to notify a named person likely to take an interest in his or her welfare about the arrest. Where a person has been arrested in connection with a serious arrestable offence, but has not yet been charged, the police may delay for up to 36 hours the exercise of these rights in the interests of the investigation if certain criteria are met. The police must caution a person whom there are grounds to suspect of an offence before any questions are put for the purpose of obtaining evidence. Questions relating to an offence may normally not be put to a person after he or she has been charged with that offence or informed that he or she may be prosecuted for it.

The detention scheme in the Police and Criminal Evidence Act pro­vides for a person to be detained only if, and for as long as, necessary for a purpose specified by law up to a maximum of 96 hours before charge. A person can only be detained beyond 36 hours if a warrant is obtained from a magistrates' court.

Reviews must be made of a person's detention (whether before or af­ter charge) at regular intervals — six hours after initial detention and thereafter every nine hours as a maximum — to check whether the crite­ria for detention are still satisfied. If they are not, the person must be re­leased immediately.