The Power of Arrest Provisions and the Amendments to Police Powers of Entry to Search/Arrest to be Introduced by the Serious Organised Crime and Police Act 2005

As mentioned in an article in the July edition of the Digest, the intended implementation date of the new power of arrest introduced by Section 110 of the Serious Organised Crime and Police Act 2005 (SOCAP) is 1 January 2006.

This article is intended to inform you of the details of the new statutory power of arrest introduced by Section 110 SOCAP into Section 24 Police and Criminal Evidence Act 1984 (PACE), and the changes under Section 111 SOCAP, which introduces Schedule 7 SOCAP, and in particular the effect they will have in relation to arrest and search powers under PACE. The new draft PACE Codes of Practice have been published for consultation, including the new Code G Code of Practice for the Statutory Power of Arrest by Police Officers. The content of these Codes will be covered in the following article.

This article will also highlight certain anomalies which will arise when this legislation is introduced, if enacted in its present form. As will be covered later in the article, these anomalies will affect police powers when dealing with certain offences and need to be borne in mind by officers.

The intended purpose of the introduction of Section 110 and 111 is to standardise a constable’s power of arrest, in effect giving them a power of arrest for all offences subject to a necessity test, and to standardise or set a threshold in relation to the powers of entry without warrant to arrest for offences and powers of entry without warrant to search for evidence of offences.

Section 110 SOCAP replaces Sections 24 (arrest without warrant for ‘arrestable offences’) and Section 25 (general arrest conditions) of PACE as it presently stands with a new Section 24 PACE definition. This is divided into two parts, the first dealing with a constable’s power of arrest and the second at Section 24A which deals with the power of arrest for other persons.

The first part reads:

Section 24 Arrest without warrant: constables

1) A constable may arrest without a warrant:

a) Anyone who is about to commit an offence.

b) Anyone who is in the act of committing an offence.

c) Anyone whom he has reasonable grounds for suspecting to be about to commit an offence.

d) Anyone whom he has reasonable grounds for suspecting to be committing an offence.

2) If a constable has reasonable grounds for suspecting that an offence has been committed, he may arrest without a warrant anyone whom he has reasonable grounds to suspect of being guilty of it.

3) If an offence has been committed, a constable may arrest without a warrant:

a) Anyone who is guilty of theoffence

b) Anyone whom he has reasonable grounds for suspecting to be guilty of it.

This definition in reality gives the constable exactly the same power to arrest as he/she has at present for an ‘arrestable offence’, except that under this new provision an officer will have the power to arrest for any offence, subject to the reasons set out below. The term ‘arrestable offence’ in PACE will be repealed on the introduction of Schedule 7, part 1, para 24(2) SOCAP.

Section 24(4) PACE states that the power of summary arrest conferred by subsections (1), (2) or (3) is exercisable only if the constable has reasonable grounds for believing that, for any of the reasons mentioned in Section 24(5), it is necessary to arrest the person in question.

Section 24(5) PACE lists the reasons, which are exhaustive as:

a) To enable the name of the person in question to be ascertained (in the case where the constable does not know, and cannot readily ascertain, the person’s name, or has

reasonable grounds for doubting whether a name given by the person as his name is his real name).

b) Correspondingly as regards the person’s address.

c) To prevent the person in question:

i) Causing physical injury to himself or any other person.

ii) Suffering physical injury.

iii) Causing loss of or damage to property.

iv) Committing an offence against public decency (subject to subsection (6)).

v) Causing an unlawful obstruction of the highway.

d) To protect a child or other vulnera