FOI 605-2024 / June 2024 / Use of PACE Codes
FREEDOM OF INFORMATION REQUEST REFERENCE NO: FOI-605-2024
I write in connection with your request for information which was received on 28th June 2024 as follows:
I am writing to request information under the Freedom of Information Act 2000. My request pertains to the Codes of Practice for people in custody, as provided under the Police and Criminal Evidence Act 1984 (PACE) and the accompanying PACE Codes of Practice.
According to the Police and Criminal Evidence Act 1984, specifically Code C, detainees in police custody are entitled to access the Codes of Practice that outline their rights and the procedures that must be followed by the police. In light of this provision, I would like to request the following information:
- Number of Copies of Codes of Practice:
Please confirm the number of copies of the PACE Codes of Practice held within each custody suite for which your police force is responsible.
- Requests for Codes of Practice:
Please provide the number of times the PACE Codes of Practice have been requested by someone in custody within each custody suite over the past three years.
For clarity, I am referring to the Codes of Practice that detainees are entitled to read and refer to during their time in custody, as mandated by the Police and Criminal Evidence Act 1984 and its associated Codes of Practice.
Please accept my sincere apologies for the delay in providing the response to your request and for any inconvenience that this may have caused you. Please find the Warwickshire Police response set out below.
Response: Please be advised that the information requested in Q2 is not centrally recorded and is therefore not held in a readily retrievable format. There is no identifier within the Custody System which shows whether or not an individual in custody has requested a full copy of the PACE Codes of Practice. Every prisoner is provided with a document detailing key points of Code C and, where any individual asks for a full copy, it is provided and this is recorded. However, the record will be within the custody log free text rather than within any reportable field and, in order to determine the information, it would be necessary to review each and every record, for the 3 year period, on an individual basis. As you will appreciate, this would take an inordinate amount of time and would exceed the amount to which we are legally required to respond, i.e., the cost of locating and retrieving the information exceeds the ‘appropriate level’, as stated in the Freedom of Information (Fees and Appropriate Limit) Regulations 2004. For Police forces in the UK, the "appropriate limit" is up to 18 hours of work on one request.
In accordance with the Freedom of Information Act 2000, this letter acts as a Refusal Notice for this part of the request and, if one part of a request exceeds the fees limit, then S12 of the Act applies to the whole request.
Under Section 16 of the Act, I have a duty to provide advice and assistance; however, given the amount of work involved, I am unable to suggest a way that you could reasonably revise this element of your request into one which could be handled within the time allowed.
I can advise that were you to remove this question then we may be able to provide a response to Q1.
Every effort has been made to ensure that the information provided is as accurate as possible.
Your attention is drawn to the below which details your right of complaint.
Should you have any further enquiries concerning this matter, please write or email the Freedom of Information Unit quoting the reference number above.
Yours sincerely
Freedom of Information Officer
Freedom of Information Unit
Warwickshire Police
PO Box 4
Leek Wootton
Warwickshire
CV35 7QB