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13 February 2026 / Matthew Hardcastle , Sandra Paul , Ed Cape
Issue: 8149 / Categories: Features , Criminal
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Keeping pace?

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Ed Cape, Matthew Hardcastle & Sandra Paul look back on 40 years of the Police and Criminal Evidence Act 1984
  • The Police and Criminal Evidence Act 1984 is 40 years old. When it was passed, it changed the face of crime investigation in England and Wales.
  • It expanded police powers but also recognised that the detention of suspects required close regulation.
  • Over the 40 years since the Act came into force, the position of suspects has been weakened by legislative changes, as well as the introduction of statutory charging, shifting police station design, the changing role of custody officers, and lack of research.

Most of the Police and Criminal Evidence Act 1984 (PACE 1984), particularly those parts governing police investigations and suspects’ rights, came into force 40 years ago, on 1 January 1986. Although enacted in 1984, the government, recognising the significant impact it would have in relation to the practice of lawyers, the police and the courts, delayed implementation in order to give time for the necessary structural

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NLJ this week: 40 years on, has PACE lost its edge?
The Police and Criminal Evidence Act 1984 transformed criminal justice. Writing in NLJ this week, Ed Cape of UWE and Matthew Hardcastle and Sandra Paul of Kingsley Napley trace its ‘seismic impact’
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Criminal juries may be convicting—or acquitting—on a misunderstanding. Writing in NLJ this week Paul McKeown, Adrian Keane and Sally Stares of The City Law School and LSE report troubling survey findings on the meaning of ‘sure’
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