Criminal Justice (Scotland) Act 2016

15 Medical treatment

(1) Subsection (2) applies when—

(a) a person is in police custody having been arrested without a warrant,

(b) since being arrested, the person has not been charged with an offence by a constable, and

(c) the person is at a hospital for the purpose of receiving medical treatment.

(2) If authorisation to keep the person in custody has not been given under section 7, that section has effect as if—

(a) each reference in subsection (2) of that section to a police station were a reference to the hospital, and

(b) the words after the reference to a police station in paragraph (b) of that subsection were omitted.

(3) Where authorisation is given under section 7 when a person is at a hospital, authorisation under that section need not be sought again if, while still in custody, the person is taken to a police station in accordance with section 4.

(4) Subsections (5) and (6) apply for the purpose of calculating the 12 hours mentioned in sections 9 and 11.

(5) Except as provided for in subsection (6), no account is to be taken of any period during which a person is—

(a) at a hospital for the purpose of receiving medical treatment, or

(b) being taken as quickly as is reasonably practicable—

(i) to a hospital for the purpose of receiving medical treatment, or

(ii) to a police station from a hospital to which the person was taken for the purpose of receiving medical treatment.

(6) Account is to be taken of any period during which a person is both—

(a) at a hospital, or being taken to or from one, and

(b) being interviewed by a constable in relation to an offence which the constable has reasonable grounds to suspect the person of committing.