The Police and Criminal Evidence Act 1984 (PACE) (1984 c. 60) is an

Act of Parliament Acts of Parliament, sometimes referred to as primary legislation, are texts of law passed by the Legislature, legislative body of a jurisdiction (often a parliament or council). In most countries with a parliamentary system of government, acts of ...

which instituted a legislative framework for the powers of police officers in

England and Wales England and Wales () is one of the three legal jurisdictions of the United Kingdom. It covers the constituent countries England and Wales and was formed by the Laws in Wales Acts 1535 and 1542. The substantive law of the jurisdiction is Eng ...

to combat crime, and provided codes of practice for the exercise of those powers. Part VI of PACE required the Home Secretary to issue Codes of Practice governing police powers. The aim of PACE is to establish a balance between the powers of the police in

and the rights and freedoms of the public. Equivalent provision is made for Northern Ireland by the

Police and Criminal Evidence (Northern Ireland) Order 1989 The Police and Criminal Evidence (Northern Ireland) Order 1989 is a statutory instrument of the United Kingdom which instituted a legislative framework for the powers of police officers in Northern Ireland similar to the framework for the powe ...

(SI 1989/1341). The equivalent in Scots Law is the Criminal Procedure (Scotland) Act 1995. PACE has been modified by the

Policing and Crime Act 2017 The Policing and Crime Act 2017 (c. 3) is an act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It received royal assent on 31 January 2017. Synopsis The act enacts various changes to existing rules involving PCCs, complaints through the IPCC, amendm ...

, "which mean that there is now a presumption that suspects who are released without charge from police detention will not be released on

bail Bail is a set of pre-trial restrictions that are imposed on a suspect to ensure that they will not hamper the judicial process. Bail is the conditional release of a defendant with the promise to appear in court when required. In some countrie ...

," a formality which was written in PACE 1984 Section 30A.

Synopsis

Although PACE is a fairly wide-ranging piece of legislation, it mainly deals with police powers to search an individual or premises, including their powers to gain entry to those premises, the handling of

exhibits An exhibition, in the most general sense, is an organized presentation and display of a selection of items. In practice, exhibitions usually occur within a cultural or educational setting such as a museum, art gallery, park, library, exhibitio ...

seized from those searches, and the treatment of suspects once they are in custody, including being interviewed. Specific legislation as to more wide-ranging conduct of a criminal investigation is contained within the

Criminal Procedures and Investigation Act 1996 The Criminal Procedure and Investigations Act 1996 or CPIA Abbreviation used in Ministry of Justice (United Kingdom), Ministry of JusticeCriminal Procedure and Investigations Act 1996 (section 23(1)) Code of Practice published March 2015, acces ...

. Criminal liability may arise if the specific terms of the Act itself are not conformed to, whereas failure to conform to the codes of practice while searching, arresting, detaining or interviewing a suspect may lead to evidence obtained during the process becoming inadmissible in court. PACE also introduces various Codes of Practice, one of the most notable being an arrest without warrant can only be lawful if the necessity test contained within Code G of PACE is met. PACE was significantly modified by the

Serious Organised Crime and Police Act 2005 The Serious Organized Crime and Police Act 2005 (c.15) (often abbreviated to SOCPA or SOCAP) is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom aimed primarily at creating the Serious Organised Crime Agency. It also significantly extended and si ...

. This replaced nearly all existing powers of arrest, including the category of

arrestable offence Arrestable offence is a legal term now obsolete in English law and the legal system of Northern Ireland, but still used in the legal system of the Republic of Ireland. The Criminal Law Act 1967 introduced the category to replace the ancient te ...

s, with a new general power of arrest for all offences. PACE is applicable not only to police officers but to anyone with conduct of a criminal investigation including Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs and to military investigations, the

Ministry of Defence Police The Ministry of Defence Police (MDP) is a civilian special police force which is part of the United Kingdom's Ministry of Defence. The MDP's primary responsibilities are to provide armed security and counter terrorism services to designated hig ...

. Any person with a duty of investigating criminal offences or charging offenders is also required to follow the provisions of the PACE codes of practice as far as practical and relevant. Despite its safeguards, PACE was extremely controversial on its introduction, and reviews have also been controversial, as the Act was thought to give considerable extra powers to the police. With the conjunction of the

Inland Revenue The Inland Revenue was, until April 2005, a department of the British Government responsible for the collection of direct taxation, including income tax, national insurance contributions, capital gains tax, inheritance tax, corporation t ...

and

HM Customs and Excise HM Customs and Excise (properly known as Her Majesty's Customs and Excise at the time of its dissolution) was a department of the British Government formed in 1909 by the merger of HM Customs and HM Excise; its primary responsibility was t ...

into Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs (HMRC), HMRC essentially gained extra powers since Customs and Excise had a

statutory A statute is a formal written enactment of a legislative authority that governs the legal entities of a city, state, or country by way of consent. Typically, statutes command or prohibit something, or declare policy. Statutes are rules made by le ...

right of entry Right of entry refers to one's right to take or resume possession of land, or the right of a person to go onto another's real property without committing trespass. It also refers to a grantor's power to retake real estate from a grantee A grant ...

into a private dwelling, that is to say they were allowed to

break and enter Burglary, also called breaking and entering and sometimes housebreaking, is the act of entering a building or other areas without permission, with the intention of committing a criminal offence. Usually that offence is theft, robbery or murder ...

without reason, but the Inland Revenue did not. PACE and its subsequent enactments limits that. Various other government agencies including TV Licensing, the Royal Mail,

BT Group BT Group plc ( trading as BT and formerly British Telecom) is a British multinational telecommunications holding company headquartered in London, England. It has operations in around 180 countries and is the largest provider of fixed-line, bro ...

(from its days of being spun off from General Post Office Telephones) and about seventeen others also have a statutory right of entry. One intent of PACE and its successors is to prevent the abuse of this right, or remove it entirely, to balance the privacy of the individual against the needs of the State.

Background

The

1981 Brixton riot The 1981 Brixton riot, or Brixton uprising, was a series of clashes between mainly black youths and the Metropolitan Police in Brixton, London, between 10 and 12 April 1981.J. A. Cloake & M. R. Tudor. ''Multicultural Britain''. Oxford Unive ...

s and the subsequent

Scarman report The Scarman report was commissioned by the UK Government following the 1981 Brixton riots. Lord Scarman was appointed by then Home Secretary William Whitelaw on 14 April 1981 (two days after the rioting ended) to hold the enquiry into the riots ...

were key factors in the passage of the Act, which was brought in following recommendations set out by the

Royal Commission on Criminal Procedure Royal may refer to: People * Royal (name), a list of people with either the surname or given name * A member of a royal family Places United States * Royal, Arkansas, an unincorporated community * Royal, Illinois, a village * Royal, Iowa, a c ...

. The purpose of PACE was to unify police powers under one code of practice and to balance carefully the rights of the individual against the powers of the police.

PACE Codes of Practice

The Home Office and the Cabinet Office announced a joint review of PACE and its codes of practice in May 2002, and on 31 July 2004, new PACE Codes of Practice came into effect. Following a further review in 2010, PACE Codes A, B and D were re-issued to take effect on 7 March 2011. * PACE Code A: deals with the exercise by police officers of statutory powers to search a person or a vehicle without first making an arrest. It also deals with the need for a police officer to make a record of such a stop or encounter. On 1 January 2009, Code A was amended to remove lengthy stop and account recording procedures, requiring police to only record a subject's ethnicity and to issue them with a receipt. * PACE Code B: deals with police powers to search premises and to seize and retain property found on premises and persons. * PACE Code C: sets out the requirements for the detention, treatment and questioning of people in police custody by police officers. It replaced the

Judges' Rules The Judges' Rules are a set of guidelines about police and questioning and the acceptability of the resulting statements and confessions as evidence in court. Originally prepared for police in England, the Rules and their successor documents ha ...

in England and Wales. * PACE Code D: concerns the main methods used by the police to identify people in connection with the investigation of offences and the keeping of accurate and reliable criminal records. * PACE Code E: deals with the tape recording of interviews with suspects in the police station. * PACE Code F: deals with the visual recording with sound of interviews with suspects. On 1 January 2006 an additional code came into force: * PACE Code G: deals with statutory powers of arrest. On 24 July 2006 a further code came into force: * PACE Code H: deals with the detention of terrorism suspects.

Case law

In the case of ''Osman v Southwark Crown Court'' (1999), the search of Osman was held to be unlawful because the officers searching him did not give their names and station, contrary to PACE's requirements. In ''O'Loughlin v Chief Constable of Essex'' (1997), the courts held that the entry of a premises under section 17 PACE to arrest O'Loughlin's wife for criminal damage was unlawful because under PACE, anyone present on the premises must be given the reason for entry. In the case of ''Christopher James Miller v Director of Public Prosecutions'' (2018) Mr.Miller's conviction for drug driving revoked because West Midland Police had breached Code C of PACE by not providing an appropriate adult despite him telling officers that he had Asperger and being aware from his previous interactions that he had Aspergers. IPCC Investigation 2012/011560 - A breach of Code C of PACE occurred in 2012 when a vulnerable 11-year-old girl Child H with a neurological disability similar to autism who was denied an appropriate adult at Crawley Police Station, after she was arrested in Horsham on 4 separate occasions for minor offences between February and March 2012. Sussex Police referred the complaint to IPCC and accepted the IPCC recommendations. However, not all cases have gone against the police; in ''R v Longman'' (1988), it was held that the police entry of a premises to execute a search warrant for drugs was lawful, although deception had been utilised to gain entry, and upon entering, the police had not identified themselves or shown the warrant.Martin, p. 132.

References

External links

Home Office: PACE Codes

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