Police and Criminal Evidence Act 1984 - PACE Codes of Practice

PACE Codes of Practice

The Home Office and the Cabinet Office announced a joint review of PACE and its codes of practice in May 2002, and on 31 July 2004, new PACE Codes of Practice came into effect. Following a further review in 2010, PACE Codes A, B and D were re-issued to take effect on 7 March 2011.

• PACE Code A: deals with the exercise by police officers of statutory powers to search a person or a vehicle without first making an arrest. It also deals with the need for a police officer to make a record of such a stop or encounter. On 1 January 2009, Code A was amended to remove lengthy stop and account recording procedures, requiring police to only record a subject's ethnicity and to issue them with a receipt.
• PACE Code B: deals with police powers to search premises and to seize and retain property found on premises and persons.
• PACE Code C: sets out the requirements for the detention, treatment and questioning of people in police custody by police officers.
• PACE Code D: concerns the main methods used by the police to identify people in connection with the investigation of offences and the keeping of accurate and reliable criminal records.
• PACE Code E: deals with the tape recording of interviews with suspects in the police station.
• PACE Code F: deals with the visual recording with sound of interviews with suspects.

On 1 January 2006 an additional code came into force:

• PACE Code G: deals with statutory powers of arrest.

On 24 July 2006 a further code came into force:

• PACE Code H: deals with the detention of terrorism suspects.