Report and Recommendations - Scottish Government

next step, as quickly as possible. The Review considers there should be aperiod of no more that twelve hours before a suspect is charged, reported tothe procurator fiscal or released. The point of charge/report should thentrigger the requirement for appearance the next lawful court day. This initialtwelve hour period of detention should contain a review after six hours, andshould not be subject to extension by the police.5.0.6 Finally, Chapter 4.3 – Liberation from Police Custody, looks at thecircumstances under which a suspect should be liberated prior to his/herappearance in court and the conditions which might be attached to any suchliberation. Given the emphasis which the Review places on the right to liberty,there should be greater powers for the police to be able to liberate a suspectduring the pre charge period and for either the police or the procurator fiscal torelease a suspect on condition of an appearance in court at a certain future date.All of these powers should be subject to appropriate safeguards andconstricted by strict timescales. The introduction of these measures shouldensure that the removal of a suspect’s liberty is only done at a point, and for aperiod of time, which is both necessary and proportionate. The final part ofthis section looks at the circumstances in which a suspect could or should beliberated prior to his/her appearance in court and the conditions which mightbe attached to any such liberation.5.0.7 When the above areas are considered together, the recommendations create acustody system which ought to secure compliance with Article 5 in the longterm and in practice mean that suspects will generally spend less time73