Tony Blair loses because Parliament wouldn't give him the 90 days of permissable detention without charge as part of the new Terrorism legislation. And the rest of us lose because now you can be held for 28 days without charge.
That's nearly a month. In February, it is a whole month.
Turns out that part of the reason the Police want this 90 days is because they're not allowed to interview people after charging them.
I didn't know that. But knowing it now it doesn't change my mind. Because they can change the rules to allow the police to question people after they've been charged without changing the laws and without damaging anyone's civil liberties (even those being detained). It's only a matter of guidance (which in centrally controlled state like the UK has nearly the weight of law) and all it would take to fix the problem is to circulate new guidance.
You can find the guidance dealing with detention and questioning here:
The Police and Criminal Evidence Act Code C (PACE) says:
A detainee may not be interviewed about an offence after they have been charged with, or informed they may be prosecuted for it, unless the interview is necessary:
- to prevent or minimise harm or loss to some other person, or the public
- to clear up an ambiguity in a previous answer or statement
- opportunity to comment on, information concerning the offence which has come to in the interests of justice for the detainee to have put to them, and have an light since they were charged or informed they might be prosecuted
The PACE code has been under review since 2002, and they hadn't bothered to change the above guidance. This new draft guidance was uploaded in September and highlights all the changes that have been made. This section, so far as I could see, was untouched.
Change the PACE Code before you start locking people up for a month without charge.
No comments:
Post a Comment