HL Deb 30 October 1984 vol 456 cc471-2

3 Clause 29, page 24, line 36, at end insert—

("(1A) Subject to subsections (1B) and (1C) below, the police station to which an arrested person is taken under subsection (1) above shall be a designated police station.

(1B) A constable who is working in the area covered by a police station which is not a designated police station may take an arrested person to any police station unless it appears to the constable that it may be necessary to keep the arrested person in police detention for more than six hours.

(1C) Any constable may take an arrested person to any police station if—

  1. (a) either of the following conditions is satisfied—
    1. (i) the constable has arrested him without the assistance of any other constable and no other constable is available to assist him;
    2. (ii) the constable has taken him into custody from a person other than a constable without the assistance of any other constable and no other constable is available to assist him; and
  2. (b) it appears to the constable that he will be unable to take the arrested person to a designated police station without the arrested person injuring himself, the constable or some other person.

(1D) If the first police station to which an arrested person is taken after his arrest is not a designated police station he shall be taken to a designated police station not more than six hours after his arrival at the first station unless he is released previously.").

The Commons agreed to the above amendment with the following amendments:

4 Line 5, leave out from ("constable") to ("may") in line 6 and insert ("to whom this subsection applies").

5 Line 9, at end insert—

("(1BB) Subsection (1B) above applies—

  1. (a) to a constable who is working in a locality covered by a police station which is not a designated police station; and
  2. (b) to a constable belonging to a body of constables maintained by an authority other than a police authority. ").

Lord Elton

My Lords, I beg to move that this House doth agree with the Commons in their Amendments Nos. 4 and 5 to the Lords Amendment numbered 3.1 shall also, with your Lordships' leave, be speaking at the same time to Lords Amendment No. 6 and the Commons amendment to it numbered 7.1 have before me an explanation of this small but complicated issue which these amendments resolve. The difficulty is one which was spotted only at the last moment. If your Lordships wish, I will expand on what I now say after noble Lords have shown that they wish me so to do.

But your Lordships may be contented if I merely say that an accidental result of the way in which the Bill was drafted when it left us was that constables who are members of non-Home Office police forces were prevented from taking suspects to their own police stations when those stations were within the area served by a Home Office police station always. The intention and the effect of these amendments is to remove that anomaly so that people like the British Rail police can still handle offenders and suspects in the way that they have done without, of course, escaping the provisions of the custody officer and so on which are required if there is an arrest for a serious arrestable offence.

Moved. That this House doth agree with the Commons in their Amendments Nos. 4 and 5 to the Lords Amendment numbered 3.—(Lord Elton.)

Lord Elwyn-Jones

My Lords these would appear to be sensible and desirable amendments and we do not oppose them.