Police Custody: Young People

Home Department written question – answered at on 8 April 2014.

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Photo of Dan Jarvis Dan Jarvis Shadow Minister (Justice)

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if she will redraft the code governing detention of teenagers under the Police and Criminal Evidence Act 1984 to ensure that 17 year olds in custody are treated as teenagers by the police.

Photo of Karen Bradley Karen Bradley The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for the Home Department

Following the High Court ruling in the judicial review HC v. (1) Secretary of State for the Home Department and (2) Commissioner of Police for the Metropolis, the Government made changes to the Police and Criminal Evidence Act 1984 Codes of Practice C & H, which govern the treatment of detained persons in police custody. The changes, which came into effect on 21 October 2013, have the effect of requiring the police to treat 17-year-olds in police custody as children by providing, as a matter of course, Appropriate Adults and to inform a person responsible for the welfare of the 17-year-old of their detention. These changes are mandatory.

I refer the hon. Member to a statement made by the Minister for Policing, Criminal Justice and Victims, my right hon. Friend Damian Green, on 21 October 2013, Hansard, columns 4-6WS, explaining these changes.

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