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Voluntary police interview

Legal terms A-Z

A voluntary police interview is when a person has an interview with police officers without being arrested. This can be described as a caution plus 3 interview.

The police may ask a person to have a conversation or a chat with them in order to help them with an investigation. Sometimes the police ask parents if they would be happy for their child to “have a chat” about a particular matter. Alternatively, they may invite the child in to the police station for a ‘voluntary interview’.

Despite the terminology being used by the police, these ‘chats’ and ‘voluntary interviews’ are usually an opportunity for the police to interview the person as a suspect. The rights, entitlements and safeguards that apply to the conduct and recording of interviews with suspects are not diminished simply because the interview is arranged on a voluntary basis. The child is not under arrest and is therefore free to leave at any time, however, the police often invite people in for voluntary interviews and then go on to arrest them if they fail to attend or leave before the interview is finished.

If the police suspect the child has committed an offence they must caution them.1 They will do this at the beginning of the interview and this means that the interview can be used as evidence against the child at a later date. Volunteers are entitled to receive free legal advice2 and they should always have a lawyer, as they would if they were under arrest. A child being interviewed by the police because they are suspected of having committed an offence will still need to have an appropriate adult even if the interview is voluntary.3 See the 2018 Home Office, Law Society and Legal Aid Agency guidance on Voluntary Interviews here.

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  • 1. Code C, paragraph 10.1 Police and Criminal Evidence Act 1984
  • 2. Code C, paragraph 3.21(b) Police and Criminal Evidence Act 1984
  • 3. Code C, paragraph 11.15 Police and Criminal Evidence Act 1984
  • 4. Youth Court Bench Book, Judicial College, June 2020, bit.ly/3JrPWdy
  • 5. s4 Bail Act 1976
  • 6. s25(2) Criminal Justice and Public Order Act 1994
  • 7. Archer v Commissioner of Police of the Metropolis [2021] EWCA Civ 1662
  • 8. Sch 1 Part I Bail Act 1976
  • 9. Sch 1 Part I para 8(1) (b) Bail Act 1976
  • 10. s240A Criminal Justice Act 2003
  • 11. Youth Court Bench Book, Remand Provisions para 7
  • 12. Youth Court Bench Book, Remand Provisions para 8
  • 13. ‘How to manage bail and remands: section 3 case management guidance’, Youth Justice Board, 1 May 2019, part 2 ‘Bail’, bit.ly/3ugB6k2
  • 14. ‘National Protocol for Case Responsibility: Practice Guidance for Youth Offending Teams in England and Wales’, Youth Justice Board, January 2018 (due to be updated in 2022), bit.ly/3JsXnBm
  • 15. ‘Youth Justice Statistics 2020/21’, Ministry of Justice and Youth Justice Board, 27 January 2022, bit.ly/3N2XFRv
  • 16. See ‘AssetPlus: assessment and planning in the youth justice system’, Youth Justice Board, 15 October 2014, bit.ly/3KVSS2B
  • 17. See, for example, Tracy Almond, ‘Asset: An assessment tool that safeguards or stigmatizes young offenders?’, Probation Journal, Vol 59(2), June 2012, p142
  • 18. ‘Youth Justice Statistics: 2019 to 2020’, Youth Justice Board and Ministry of Justice, 2021, bit.ly/3tn46Hy; ‘Ethnic disproportionality in remand and sentencing in the youth justice system: Analysis of administrative data’, Youth Justice Board, 2021, bit.ly/3tmeyin
  • 19.a. b. R (B) v Brent Youth Court [2010] EWHC 1893 (Admin)
  • 20. Youth Court Bench Book, Remand Provisions para 11
  • 21. s91(3) LASPO
  • 22. Youth Court Bench Book, Remand Provisions para 26
  • 23. Youth Court Bench Book, Remand Provisions para 28
  • 24. Youth Court Bench Book, Remand Provisions para 21
  • 25. R v A [2019] EWCA Crim 106
  • 26. Youth Court Bench Book, Remand Provisions para 30
  • 27. Youth Court Bench Book, Remand Provisions para 31
  • 28. ss98 and 99 LASPO
  • 29. Youth Court Bench Book, Remand Provisions para 35; ‘Overarching Principles – Sentencing Children and Young People’, Sentencing Council, 1 June 2017, bit.ly/3JqmDs3
  • 30.a. b. Youth Court Bench Book, Remand Provisions para 35
  • 31. R v Eagles [2006] EWCA Crim 2368
  • 32. s81 Senior Courts Act 1981
  • 33. Criminal Procedure Rules (CrimPR) 14.8(2)
  • 34. CrimPR 14.8(3) (e) and 14.4(4)
  • 35. CrimPR 14.9(1)(a); s1(1) Bail (Amendment) Act 1993
  • 36. CrimPR 14.9(2); s1(4) and (5) Bail (Amendment) Act 1993
  • 37. CrimPR 14.9(4); s1(5) Bail (Amendment) Act 1993
  • 38. CrimPR 14.9(10)
  • 39. CrimPR 14.9(3)
  • 40. CrimPR 14.9(8)
  • 41. s115 Criminal Justice Act 2009
  • 42. S7(4) Bail Act 1976
  • 43. s7(5) Bail Act 1976
  • 44. 43 s97(1)(c) LASPO
  • 45. 44 .97(2) LASPO
  • 46. 45 s97(6) LASPO
  • 47. 46 s3(1) Bail Act 1976
  • 48. s38(4)(c) Crime and Disorder Act 1998
  • 49. ss17 and 20 Children Act 1989; R (G) v Southwark LB [2009] UKHL 26
  • 50. See bit.ly/3wzWraX
  • 51. s22C Children Act 1989
  • 52. ‘Review of custodial remand for children’, Ministry of Justice, published 26 January 2022, updated 16 February 2022, bit.ly/3Ji8jBL
  • 53. s21 Children Act 1989, and in Wales, the Social Services and Wellbeing Act 2014; also ‘How to manage bail and remands: section 3 case management guidance’, Youth Justice Board, 1 May 2019, part 3 ‘Remand’, bit.ly/3tnLLtZ
  • 54. s92(5) LASPO
  • 55. s25(1) Children Act 1989
  • 56. s104 LASPO
  • 57. s22 Children Act 1989
  • 58. s22(3)(a) Children Act 1989
  • 59. s22(3)(b) Children Act 1989
  • 60. ‘The Children Act 1989 guidance and regulations – Volume 2: care planning, placement and case review’, Department for Education, July 2021, bit.ly/3udUez7
  • 61. The 13 weeks criteria for leaving care would include any time the child has spent looked after between the age of 14 and 17 with at least one day over the age of 16. Schedule 2, Paragraph 19B Children Act 1989.
  • 62. http://bit.ly/34TUhHv
  • 63. http://bit.ly/3N6aSJl
  • 64. http://bit.ly/3CRrTT7
  • 65. ‘Annual statistics: a youth justice system failing Black children’, Keith Fraser, YJB Chair and Board Champion for OverRepresented Children, 27 January 2022, bit. ly/3uco0UG (quoting ‘Youth Justice Statistics 2020/21’, Ministry of Justice and Youth Justice Board, 27 January 2022, bit.ly/3N2XFRv). See also ‘Review of custodial remand for children’, Ministry of Justice, published 26 January 2022, updated 16 February 2022, bit.ly/3Ji8jBL
  • 66. http://bit.ly/2Q9yUu2
  • 67. http://bit.ly/3JrPWdy
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