Law to change so that 17-year-olds in police custody treated as minors

The law will be changed so that 17-year-olds held in police custody are treated as minors and placed in local authority care, Policing Minister Mike Penning has said.

This move followed a campaign on behalf of 17-year-olds, who argued that the police had wrongly treated them as though they were adults by holding them in overnight detention.

Penning said: “I am committed to ensuring that young people are protected and treated appropriately while in police custody.

"The law is clear that any child who is charged with an offence should not be held overnight in a police cell unless it is impracticable to transfer them to local authority accommodation and this amendment will guarantee all 17-year-olds will be treated in the same way.”

Relevant amendments to the Police and Criminal Evidence Act (PACE) were introduced in the House of Lords on 10 November.

Doughty Street Chambers acted for the Just for Kids Law charity and the ‘Still a Child at 17’ campaign.

It said the changes described by the minister should ensure that the definition of ‘arrested juvenile’ in PACE includes all aged under 18 instead of only 12 to 16-year-olds. 

The chambers also acted for a 17-year-old who successfully took action against Home Secretary Theresa May last year, backed by Just for Kids Law. 

In R (HC) v. Secretary of State for the Home Department the Divisional Court ruled she had acted unlawfully in failing to amend the Codes of Practice issued under PACE to ensure that 17-year-olds in police custody were treated as children, including in particular being provided with ‘appropriate adults’. 

Although PACE Code C was amended after the this case, the chambers said there remained significant anomalies in how 17-year-olds were treated in PACE itself as those in police cells had no right to be transferred to local authority care overnight, unlike those aged 16 and under.

Mark Smulian