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10 February 2021 / Neil Parpworth
Issue: 7920 / Categories: Features , Public , Criminal
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(Re)setting the PACE

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Neil Parpworth reports on the necessity test for an arrest
  • Reform to the Police and Criminal Evidence Act 1984.
  • Two recent decisions to add to the body of case law on PACE 1984.
  • Judges to reflect ‘long and hard’ when deciding whether an impugned arrest was lawful?

Although s 24 of the Police and Criminal Evidence Act 1984 (PACE 1984) remains the key statutory provision in relation to police powers of arrest, it underwent considerable change as a consequence of reforms made by the Serious Organised Crime and Police Act 2005. Chief among these was the introduction of a necessity requirement. In other words, the power of arrest in respect of a crime which either has been, is being or is about to be committed (or where the arresting officer has reasonable grounds for suspecting that any of these stages has been reached), may only be exercised where the officer ‘has reasonable grounds for believing that for any of the reasons mentioned … it is necessary to arrest the person in

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