Report and Recommendations - Scottish Government

Thus, prior to the 2010 Act, if a suspect were detained at 7 pm on a Thursdaynight, he/she could theoretically only be arrested at about 1 am on the Fridayand thereby not due in court until some time on the Monday. If Monday werea public holiday, he/she might not (but for Article 5 or, perhaps even better,the common law) be due in court until the Tuesday. Under the current section14 detention system, a suspect may be detained for up to twelve hours,extendable by a further twelve hours where necessary “to secure, obtain orpreserve evidence (whether by questioning the person or otherwise)”. There is,therefore, a prospect at present that a person could be detained under section14 for up to twenty-four hours before being arrested and thereafter beingbrought before the Court “as soon as possible”.5.2.8 The Review was able to take a snapshot of what actually occurs with custodiesin an urban area during a particular weekend. This revealed that, of the manypersons dealt with in the custody court on the Monday, one person had beendetained from the previous Thursday morning until bailed on the Mondayevening. There were six others held from the Thursday night, three from thevery early hours of the Friday morning, five from before noon on the Fridayand six from mid afternoon that day who did not appear in court, and hencewere not bailed or committed to prison, until late on the Monday afternoon orearly in the evening of that day. These custodies amounted to about 16% ofthe total. The Review does not consider that this is acceptable in a modernjudicial system. A further 22% of custodies, which were only dealt with lateon the Monday, were persons who had been in custody since either late on theFriday night or early on the Saturday morning. Even with this group, the101