Arrival at the station: custody officer, custody record and relevant time

An arrested person should be brought before the custody officerGlossary termCustody officer as soon as practicable. This is the officer responsible for the statutory custody decisions and safeguards, not merely a booking clerk. At a designated station, the custody officer is ordinarily at least a sergeant and is not an officer involved in investigating the offence; the Act provides arrangements for exceptional staffing circumstances. Where evidence is not yet sufficient to charge, detention requires reasonable grounds to believe it necessary to secure or preserve evidence relating to the offence, or obtain evidence by questioning. The grounds must be recorded and explained. An unfinished investigation does not, by itself, justify a cell. Authority: PACE, sections 34, 36–37; Code C, paragraphs 2.1A and 3.4.

A custody record is the chronological account of detention and the decisions affecting it. A separate record must be opened as soon as practicable. It should show arrest and detention grounds, rights requested or declined, vulnerability and medical decisions, reviews, extensions, periods outside the custody officer's control, interviews, breaks, complaints and the final disposal. Reconcile its entries against the client's account and actual events: a recorded decision does not prove that its statutory conditions existed. Authority: Code C, paragraphs 2.1–2.4 and the recording duties attached to each procedure.

The solicitor and appropriate adult can inspect the custody record as soon as practicable after arrival and on request during detention. After release or being taken before a court, a copy may be requested by the detainee, solicitor or appropriate adult; the entitlement lasts 12 months after release. Obtain it promptly rather than waiting for the last day. Access to documents and material essential to challenging detention is distinct from the pre-interview information needed for advice and from later prosecution disclosure. Authority: Code C, paragraphs 2.4–2.5, 3.2 and 15.0.

Fix the statutory starting point before adding hours

The ordinary maximum is 24 hours without charge, measured from the statutory relevant timeGlossary termRelevant time. This is a defined starting point, not whichever event a record happens to call “booking in”. In the ordinary arrest case, it is arrival at the first police station to which the arrested person is taken. It is not automatically roadside arrest, arrival at the custody desk, authorisation of detention or the first interview. Authority: PACE, section 41(1) and (2)(d).

These categories matter because “the earlier of station arrival and 24 hours after arrest” is not a universal rule. An arrest for a further offence while already in detention does not ordinarily restart the existing clock: section 41(4) preserves the original relevant time for a further arrest under section 31. Return after police-station bail engages the specific calculation in sections 41(13) and 47(6)–(6A), not an assumed fresh 24 hours. Identify the previous detention and release route before calculating. Authority: PACE, section 41.

Hospital treatment is a defined exclusion, not a general pause for every absence from the station. Time receiving treatment outside the station and travel to and from that treatment is excluded from Part IV periods; time spent being questioned during that period counts. A solicitor's visit, ordinary rest, waiting for an interpreter or an interview break does not itself stop the maximum-detention clock. Treatment and questioning must also respect medical advice. Authority: PACE, section 41(6); Code C, section 14 and Note 14A.

Solicitor action. Verify arrest, station arrival, detention authorisation, the applicable relevant-time category, every review, treatment interval and any asserted extension. Record disputed timings and request reasons. If continued detention no longer has a lawful purpose, request release now; do not treat the maximum period as an entitlement to retain the person until it expires. Authority: PACE, sections 34, 37 and 41; Code C, paragraphs 1.1 and 15.0.