Section 60 Criminal Justice (Scotland) Act 2016: consultation analysis

Introduction

1. The Scottish Government consulted to seek feedback on how Part 1 of the Criminal Justice (Scotland) Act 2016 (the Act) should apply to arrest not relating to criminal offences, including certain warrant arrests. The feedback received during the consultation will be used to shape the final regulations under section 60 of the Act. A draft set of regulations was included in the consultation paper which enabled the reader to see what amendments were proposed and why they were seen as necessary.

2. The Criminal Justice (Scotland) Act 2016 contains procedures and protections which will apply to all arrests. While the majority of arrests in Scotland are of people suspected of a criminal offence, there are arrests for other reasons allowed in various statutes. For example an arrest for a breach of a protective court order or a witness arrested under warrant to ensure they attend court. For these arrests, not all the procedures and protections set out in the Act are appropriate. Section 60 of the Act allows Scottish Ministers to make regulations to modify or dis-apply the Act to arrests that do not relate to criminal arrests. These regulations will ensure that arrests which do not relate to criminal offences and certain warrant arrests can be catered for within the new arrest and custody procedures brought in by the Act.

3. Although the regulations are of a very technical nature a full public consultation was considered appropriate to ensure that proper consideration was given to views regarding the rights which people arrested in these circumstances should be given.

4. This report provides analysis of the issues raised by individuals and organisations through that consultation exercise. As there were only a small amount of responses received the analysis is a fairly high level summary but the responses themselves have been published alongside the report for people to view as they wish – where respondents have indicated they are content for this to happen which in this case is all of the respondents to the consultation.