Consultation outcome

Revised PACE codes of practice: C and H

• From: Home Office and The Rt Hon Damian Green
• Published: 21 August 2013
• Last updated: 23 October 2013 — See all updates

This was published under the 2010 to 2015 Conservative and Liberal Democrat coalition government

This consultation has concluded

Read the full outcome

Consultation on PACE Codes C and H - response

PDF, 997 KB, 34 pages

Detail of outcome

This consultation response covers the outcome of the consultation on PACE codes C and H and also the consultation on PACE codes A, B, E and F.

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Original consultation

Summary

This consultation concerns the treatment of 17-year-olds in police custody and the translation and interpretation of essential documents for non-English speaking detainees.

This consultation ran from
21 August 2013 to 11:45pm on 25 September 2013

Consultation description

This consultation runs until Wednesday 25 September 2013.

Each draft has a covering note and detailed table outlining all the changes and their purpose with links to the paragraphs concerned. The changes to the Codes and reasons for the changes are summarised below.

Proposed changes to Codes of Practice C (Detention) and H (Detention – Terrorism)

The draft changes to the codes have been made in order to:

• comply with the Divisional Court judgment in HC v The Secretary of State for the Home Department and the Commissioner of Police of the Metropolis.
• implement the EU Directive on the right to interpretation and translation in criminal proceedings

HC judgment

In the judgment, the court held that PACE Code C must be amended so that 17-years-olds were not treated in the same way as adults aged 18 and over.

The changes apply the safeguards in codes C and H currently applicable to juveniles (aged 16 or under) to 17-year-olds except in relation to primary legislation which cannot be extended to 17-year-olds unless it is amended by Parliament.

The main effect is to require an appropriate adult be called to help a 17-year-old and for a person responsible for the welfare of the 17-year-old (such as a parent or guardian) to be informed of their status as a detainee.

EU Directive 2010/64

The EU Directive came into force on 20 October 2010 and is required to be implemented in UK law by 27 October 2013. To comply with the directive, the changes include a new requirement for suspects to be provided with a written translation of certain ‘essential’ documents. Such documents are those concerning decisions to deprive a person of their liberty by keeping them in police custody and documents which set out any offence for which they are charged or reported.

A number of other minor changes have been made in the interests of legal accuracy and to reflect current practice.

Next steps

These drafts are being circulated for consultation in accordance with section 67(4) of PACE.

Please email your responses to: pacereview@homeoffice.gsi.gov.uk

Documents

Revised PACE code C (detention)

MS Word Document, 871 KB

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Revised PACE code H (detention-terrorism)

MS Word Document, 740 KB

This file may not be suitable for users of assistive technology.

Request an accessible format.

If you use assistive technology (such as a screen reader) and need a version of this document in a more accessible format, please email alternativeformats@homeoffice.gov.uk. Please tell us what format you need. It will help us if you say what assistive technology you use.

Published 21 August 2013
Last updated 23 October 2013 + show all updates

1. 23 October 2013

   Consultation response published

2. 21 August 2013

   First published.