Arrest without warrant
Section 1 – Power of a constable
15.Section 1 sets out new powers of a police constable to arrest, without a warrant, a person suspected of having committed or to be committing an offence in Scotland. (Note, however, that the arrest regime under section 41(1) of the Terrorism Act 2000 is unaffected by this Act (see section 59)).
16.Section 1(1) provides that a constable (defined in section 62) who has reasonable grounds to suspect that a person has committed or is committing an offence may arrest that person without a warrant.
17.Section 1(2) qualifies the power of a constable to arrest a person without warrant for having committed an offence which is not punishable by imprisonment. Not only must a constable have reasonable grounds for suspecting the person, the constable must also be satisfied that the “interests of justice” would not be met if the person was not immediately arrested for the offence. Section 1(3) sets out factors that may be relevant in applying the “interests of justice” test referred to in section 1(2).
18.Section 1(4) provides clarity that an offence is only to be considered as not punishable by imprisonment in terms of subsection (2) if, as a matter of general application, a person, when convicted, cannot be sentenced to imprisonment. This means that the power operates even where the particular person arrested may not be imprisoned (due, most likely, to the person’s age).
Section 2 – Exercise of the power
19.Section 2 sets out how the power of arrest set out in section 1 can be exercised.
20.Section 2(1) provides that a person may be arrested under section 1 multiple times for the same offence (e.g. a person may be arrested, questioned and released and subsequently arrested again if, for example, further evidence comes to light).
21.Section 2(2) clarifies that the power to arrest again does not apply to persons who have been “officially accused” (defined in section 63) of having committed the offence or an offence arising from the same circumstances. For example, where the police have a warrant to arrest a person, they cannot use the power of arrest to do so.
22.Section 2(3) creates a requirement that a constable who is not in uniform must show his or her identification, as soon as reasonably practicable, when requested to do so by a person being arrested.
