Report and Recommendations - Scottish Government

that the need to extend detention for questioning beyond twelve hours shouldoccur only in exceptional circumstances.5.2.24 There is some confusion on whether the police ought to charge a detainedsuspect as soon as there is sufficient evidence to do so. The Review’sunderstanding of the law is that there is no such requirement and that the pointat which the police elect to charge a suspect is a matter for their discretion,subject to the general requirement of fairness. The Review has not beenconvinced that there is any reason to change this approach. It does, however,seem sensible to remove the confusion by explicit statutory provisionclarifying how and when the police must charge a suspect.5.2.25 The current law and practice has the potential to allow a person to be held, incertain circumstances, for a period of four, and perhaps five, days in policecustody prior to appearance in court. Such lengthy periods may not be typical.Many suspects do appear in court on the day following their arrest. However,it remains the case, as demonstrated by the figures in the snapshot of custodycases described above, that a significant proportion of suspects are held forperiods which are at least at the outer limits of what may be regarded asacceptable even under the Convention. More important than that, suspects arebeing held for periods that are longer than ought to be regarded as acceptablein Scottish human rights terms. It is worth exploring the causes for theprolonged custody periods and the available remedies for what the Reviewconsiders to be a serious problem.111