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Report and Recommendations - Scottish Government

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until shortly before his/her attendance at court. It may also be that somesuspects will consider that requesting legal advice is likely to prolong theirperiod in custody.6.1.45 In recent studies carried out in Engl<strong>and</strong> <strong>and</strong> Wales, a variety of factorsinfluencing a suspect’s decision to waive advice was identified. Theseincluded 46 :“factors connected to suspects (including ethnicity, haste, offenceseriousness, self-defined guilt/innocence, prior experience of custody<strong>and</strong> of legal advisers); the police (including ploys <strong>and</strong> informalconversations); <strong>and</strong> legal advisers (including their availability,experience <strong>and</strong> competence)”.The decisions made by suspects were complex, highly subjective <strong>and</strong>contingent on the custody environment <strong>and</strong> what suspects were told bysolicitors.6.1.46 It is predicted, following the experience in Engl<strong>and</strong> <strong>and</strong> Wales, that, over time,waiver rates will fall. Within a short number of years, waiver will cease to bethe norm 47 .6.1.47 It is important that the circumstances under which waiver is exercised arecarefully regulated for the protection of suspects against the inadvertent orunwitting surrender of their human rights. This is in the interests of thecriminal justice system as a whole, particularly given that the admissibility of46 Skinns (supra) at 34; see also Pleasance et al : The Justice Lottery Police station advice 25 years onfrom PACE [2011] Crim LR 347 Skinns (supra) at 22166

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