Cut-price justice?

Press reporting of the Home Office’s review of the Police and Criminal Evidence Act 1984 (PACE 1984) has centred on one distinctive proposal, dubbed “Tesco jails” by The Times (15 March 2007). The name is misleading, as has been much of the reporting.

It is not clear exactly what the government has in mind for short-term holding facilities (STHFs). The proposals at present are vague, and the responses from police forces and other interested parties have been mixed.
The Home Office published its consultation paper, Modernising Police Powers—Review of the Police and Criminal Evidence Act 1984, in March 2007 (see www.police.homeoffice.gov.uk). The paper covers a wide variety of topics relating to police powers and procedures, including reforms to stop and search and the taking of biometric samples. It invites views on whether PACE 1984, encrusted by over two decades of amendments and codes, needs to be replaced or rewritten.

EYE-CATCHING INITIATIVES

While claiming to be mindful of the need to safeguard basic rights, the paper contemplates