generally empowered to enter premises without a warrant, although they may do so in the case of a very serious crime and great urgency. Having obtained a warrant from a justice, the police may enter premises, if necessary by force, and search them for items relating to the specific offence, and may seize any such items bearing on the presumed guilt of the suspect. The police may search any person who has been formally apprehended;
(c) Detention: the police may detain for questioning a person in respect of an imprisonable offence, but the detention may not last longer than six hours, at the end of which time the suspect must either be charged or released, and he may not be detained again in connection with the same offence;
(d) Questioning: every person who is detained in policy custody may be searched. Once a person has been arrested and charged, he may not be questioned further about the alleged crime, although he may make a voluntary statement which would be admissible as evidence. A person detained for questioning but not charged need not answer any questions put to him beyond signing his name and address.
117. The rights of the suspect are also largely established at common law, and include the following safeguards:
(a) On detention by the police, the suspect must be told the general nature of the offence under investigation;
(b) Records must be kept of the time of detention, release or charge, and notification of the suspect of his rights;
(c) The suspect must be informed of his right to have one person notified of his detention or arrest without delay and may consult a solicitor privately if he wishes. This right may be delayed only in exceptional circumstances in the interests of the investigation or prevention of crime;
(d) There are special provisions relating to the detention of juveniles under 16 whereby the police must immediately inform the parents or guardian and allow them access to the child. This right may be delayed only if the parents or guardian are suspected of having been involved in the crime in question;
(e) It is hoped that by the early 1990s facilities will be available to enable the tape-recording of all Criminal Investigation Department (CID) interviews in Scotland, and it is intended that this facility shall subsequently be extended to other categories of police interviews.
118. Under common law in Scotland, any statement made by a suspect in answer to a police question will be admissible in evidence only if it can be shown to have been obtained fairly. Whether the evidence is held to have been obtained fairly will be determined on the basis of all the circumstances of the questioning in the individual case.
Medical detainees
119. The United Kingdom does not have anything to add to what it said in the second period report about those detained under the Mental Health Act 1983.
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