|
The Police and Criminal Evidence Act 1984 (PACE) (1984 c. 60) is an Act of Parliament which instituted a legislative framework for the powers of police officers in England and Wales to combat crime, as well as providing codes of practice for the exercise of those powers.〔 Part VI 〔(Part VI of the Police and Criminal Evidence Act 1984 )〕 of PACE required the Home Secretary to issue Codes of Practice governing police powers. The aim of PACE is to establish a balance between the powers of the police in England and Wales and the rights and freedoms of the public. Equivalent provision is made for Northern Ireland by the Police and Criminal Evidence (Northern Ireland) Order 1989 (SI 1989/1341). The equivalent in Scots Law is the Criminal Procedure (Scotland) Act 1995. Although PACE is a fairly wide ranging piece of legislation, it mainly deals with police powers to search an individual or premises, including their powers to gain entry to those premises, the handling of exhibits seized from those searches, and the treatment of suspects once they are in custody, including being interviewed. Specific legislation as to more wide ranging conduct of a criminal investigation is contained within the Criminal Procedures and Investigation Act 1996. Criminal liability may arise if the specific terms of the Act itself are not conformed to, whereas failure to conform to the codes of practice while searching, arresting, detaining or interviewing a suspect may lead to evidence obtained during the process becoming inadmissible in court. PACE was significantly modified by the Serious Organised Crime and Police Act 2005. This replaced nearly all existing powers of arrest, including the category of arrestable offences, with a new general power of arrest for all offences. PACE is applicable not only to police officers but to anyone with conduct of a criminal investigation including, but not limited to, Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs〔Police and Criminal Evidence Act 1984, (section 114 )〕 and to military investigations, the Ministry of Defence Police or colloquially "MoD Plod".〔Police and Criminal Evidence Act 1984, (section 113 )〕 Any person with a duty of investigating criminal offences or charging offenders is also required to follow the provisions of the PACE codes of practice as far as practical and relevant.〔Police and Criminal Evidence Act 1984, (section 67(9) ). These include officers of the Serious Fraud Office (''R v Director of the Serious Fraud Office, ex p. Saunders'' () Crim LR 837), trading standards officers (''Dudley MBC v Debenhams'' (1994) 159 JP 18), commercial investigators when interviewing an employee (Twaites and Brown (1990) 92 Cr App R 106), store detectives (''Bayliss'' (1993) 98 Cr App R 235), Federation Against Copyright Theft investigators (''Joy v Federation Against Copyright Theft'' () Crim LR 588) and council officers. However such a duty is not owed by DTI inspectors appointed under sections 432 and 442 of the Companies Act 1985 (''Seelig and Spens'' () 1 WLR 148), nor by prison officers (''Martin Taylor'' () EWCA Crim 2922).〕 Despite its safeguards, PACE was extremely controversial on its introduction, and reviews have also been controversial,〔(Press Gazette: PACE review is 'wake-up' call )〕 as the Act was thought to give considerable extra powers to the police. With the conjunction of the Inland Revenue and HM Customs and Excise into Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs, the HMRC essentially gained extra powers since Customs and Excise had a statutory right of entry into a private dwelling, that is to say they were allowed to break and enter without reason, but the Inland Revenue did not. PACE and its subsequent enactments limits that. Various other government agencies including TV Licensing, the Royal Mail, BT Group (from its days of being spun off from General Post Office Telephones) and about seventeen others also have a statutory right of entry. One intent of PACE and its successors is to prevent the abuse of this right, or remove it entirely, to balance the privacy of the individual against the needs of the State. ==Background== The 1981 Brixton riots, and the subsequent Scarman report were key factors in the passage of the Act. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Police and Criminal Evidence Act 1984」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
|