Bartholomew Dalton on solicitors’ right to take phones into police custody suites

Serious and General Crime associate Bartholomew Dalton has contributed a commentary to Criminal Law Week in which he addresses the rules on solicitors’ ability to take electronic devices into police custody suites.

The National Police Chiefs’ Council and the Law Society recently produced an updated memo on this topic in which they stated solicitors should permitted to use smart phones to make audio recordings of clients’ police interviews under caution.

Bartholomew calls this rule change “extremely welcome”, especially since – as he explains – requests to the police to provide interview recordings pre-charge “have been met with mixed results” previously.

After addressing PACE Code E and the case law relating to the provision of interview recordings pre-charge, Bartholomew expresses his hope that more easily available audio recordings of police interviews will help address a problem that can sometimes occur when a solicitor is instructed post-interview, or when a client changes representation.

Criminal Law Week subscribers can access the article here.