Arrested in the UK: your rights, the process, and what happens next

Part One: Before The Police Make Contact

What should you do if you hear the police want to speak to you?

If you learn the police want to speak to you and they have not yet made contact, take legal advice before you contact them, because the first thing you say is evidence.

The instinct is to ring the officer and clear it up. That call is not an informal chat. They can note it, and what you say can be used against you later.

The better route is for a solicitor to make contact on your behalf. They can establish what the allegation is, what stage the investigation has reached, whether an interview is proposed, and what disclosure will be given before it. None of that delays matters. It changes the footing you start from.

Can you be charged without being arrested?

Yes. Arrest is a power to detain, not a precondition to prosecution, and many cases now proceed by voluntary interview followed by a written charge and postal requisition. You can be charged based on the evidence that been obtained, without the need to be detained at a police station.

The absence of an arrest therefore does not mean a case is going nowhere. It reflects how the police manage the process.

Part Two: Arrest And The Police Station

What happens when you are arrested in the UK in 2026?

An arrest means you are taken to a police station, booked in by a custody officer, and held while the police investigate, for a period the law limits.

The sequence is broadly the same whatever the allegation:

1. You are arrested and cautioned. An officer must have reasonable grounds to suspect you of an offence and reasonable grounds to believe the arrest is necessary. The caution is the familiar form of words: you do not have to say anything, but it may harm your defence if you do not mention when questioned something you later rely on in court, and anything you do say may be given in evidence.
2. You are taken to a designated police station.
3. A custody officer decides independently whether your detention is authorised. That officer is not part of the investigation team.
4. Your rights are explained and recorded on the custody record: legal advice, someone informed of your whereabouts, and access to the Codes of Practice.
5. Your property is recorded, and fingerprints, a photograph and a DNA sample are usually taken.
6. You are detained while enquiries continue. Your detention is reviewed periodically by an officer of at least inspector rank.
7. You are interviewed under caution. The interview is recorded, and your solicitor should receive disclosure about the allegation beforehand.
8. A decision follows: charge, release on pre-charge bail, release under investigation, or no further action.

Source: Police and Criminal Evidence Act 1984 s24 and Code G (arrest); Code C (detention, treatment and questioning).

How long can the police keep you in custody?

The police can normally hold you for up to 24 hours from arrival at the station before charging or releasing you, extendable to 36 hours by a superintendent and to 96 hours only with a magistrates’ warrant.

The clock runs from what the legislation calls the relevant time, which is generally your arrival at the first police station, not the moment of arrest.

Stage	Maximum period	Who authorises
Standard detention	24 hours from the relevant time	Custody officer
First extension	36 hours	Superintendent or above
Further extension	Up to 96 hours	Magistrates’ court

You are entitled to have someone informed that you are in custody. This is a right to have someone told where you are, not a general right to make a telephone call, and it can be delayed in limited circumstances for serious offences.

Source: PACE 1984 ss41 to 44 and s56.

What are your rights at the police station?

Everyone held at a police station has three core rights: free and independent legal advice, someone told where you are, and access to the Codes of Practice.

The right to legal advice is not means-tested. It does not depend on the seriousness of the allegation, and it applies whether you have been arrested or have attended voluntarily.

It is worth saying plainly that asking for a solicitor is not treated as an indication of guilt, and it cannot be held against you. It is the single most consequential decision made in a custody suite, and it is taken by people who are tired, frightened and keen to get home.

Source: PACE 1984 s56 and s58; Code C.

Do you need a solicitor, and what is a duty solicitor?

A duty solicitor is a criminal defence solicitor available free of charge at every police station, on rota, to anyone who asks for one.

You are equally entitled to ask for a firm of your own choosing, and advice at the police station is free either way.

Where a matter is sensitive, reputationally exposed, or likely to involve regulators, employers or the press as well as the police, most people instruct their own firm. The reason is continuity. The solicitor who attends the interview is the one who will handle representations before any charging decision, and who will already understand the wider picture.

I have had many clients come to me after they have been interviewed by the police. They did not have a solicitor as they did not think they needed one as they had nothing to hide. This is a common misconception. Having a solicitor with you in interview can help to bring about the early end to an investigation by ensuring that the right information is given to the police and that your position is fully protected.

Mark Jones, Partner, Payne Hicks Beach

Part Three: The Interview

What is the difference between arrest, a voluntary interview, and an interview under caution?

An interview under caution is the questioning itself; arrest and voluntary attendance are simply two routes to it, and the caution carries the same weight either way.

This is the most common and most costly misunderstanding in the whole process. A voluntary interview is widely treated as the softer option, as though it were a preliminary conversation. It is not. It is a recorded interview under caution, and what is said in it is evidence in exactly the same way.

	Arrest	Voluntary interview	Interview under caution
What it is	A power to detain	An invitation to attend	The questioning itself
Are you detained?	Yes	No	Either, depending on route
Free legal advice?	Yes	Yes	Yes
Recorded?	Yes	Yes	Yes
Same evidential weight?	Yes	Yes	Yes

The real difference is that voluntary attendance avoids an arrest, and an arrest is itself recorded, whether or not anything follows. That is a real advantage, and it is the reason voluntary attendance is usually worth taking up rather than refusing.

Do you have to attend a voluntary interview?

You are not legally required to attend a voluntary interview, but declining can lead to arrest instead, which removes the advantages voluntary attendance offers.

If you do attend, you are free to leave at any point, and you must be told so. In practice, leaving partway through an interview is rarely the right course, and it is not a substitute for declining to answer particular questions.

Does a voluntary interview mean the police do not have enough evidence?

No. A voluntary interview reflects how the police have chosen to manage the process, not the strength of the case against you.

It may mean the grounds for arrest are not made out. It may equally mean the investigation is advanced, the evidence is documentary, and there is simply no need to detain anyone. Nothing about the invitation tells you which.

Do you have to answer police questions, or can you stay silent?

You are not obliged to answer police questions, but a court may draw an adverse inference if you rely later on something you could reasonably have mentioned in interview.

The right to silence survives, but it is qualified. A court may also draw inferences from a failure to account for objects, substances or marks, or for your presence at a particular place.

An inference is not proof, and no one can be convicted on silence alone. But it is a real consequence, which is why you should make this decision with a solicitor who has seen what the police have disclosed and can fully advise you on whether or not an inference is likely to be drawn.

Source: Criminal Justice and Public Order Act 1994 ss34 to 37.

Should you say “no comment”?

Whether to answer, give a prepared statement, or say no comment is a tactical decision that depends on what the police have disclosed, which is why you make it with a solicitor.

There are three options, not two, and most people have never heard of the third.

• Answer questions. Appropriate where the account is straightforward and the disclosure is full enough to know what is being alleged.
• Give a prepared statement. Your solicitor sets out your account in writing, it is read into the interview, and you then decline to answer questions. This can protect against an adverse inference, because you have given your account, while avoiding questioning on a partial picture.
• Answer no comment throughout. Often right where disclosure is thin, where the allegation is unclear, or where answering would invite speculation.

The right choice turns almost entirely on disclosure. Where the police have said little about what is alleged, answering questions means guessing at the case against you, and guesses are recorded.

Part Four: Searches And Devices

Can the police search your home without a warrant?

Yes, in defined circumstances: to arrest someone, after an arrest to search the premises where you were, or with the occupier’s consent; otherwise a warrant is normally required.

The main routes are these. A magistrate can issue a search warrant. Officers can enter premises to arrest someone for an indictable offence, or to save life or prevent serious damage. After an arrest for an indictable offence, premises occupied or controlled by the person arrested can be searched on the authority of an inspector. Officers can also search the immediate place of arrest.

Consent is the other route, and it is the one worth pausing on. A search agreed to is lawful, and agreement is often given without anyone realising a warrant was needed.

Vehicles are subject to a separate set of powers, which are broader than those applying to a home.

Source: PACE 1984 s8, s17, s18 and s32.

Can the police take your phone, and can they make you unlock it?

The police can seize a phone as evidence, and a court-approved notice can require you to provide the passcode, with failure to comply being a criminal offence in itself.

Seizure and compelled access are two different things. A device can be seized under the ordinary search and seizure powers. Requiring you to provide the key to it needs a separate notice, which carries judicial authorisation.

Failing to comply with such a notice is an offence on its own, whatever the device turns out to contain. In other words, the refusal can be prosecuted even where the underlying investigation ends in no further action.

Passcodes and biometrics are not treated identically, and the position on compelled fingerprint or facial unlocking is less settled than the position on passcodes.

How long can the police keep your phone, and how do you get it back?

There is no fixed statutory limit on how long the police can retain a seized device, but retention must remain necessary, and it can be challenged.

Devices are routinely retained for months. Backlogs in digital forensic examination are the usual reason, and the fact of a delay does not make the retention unlawful.

What is available is this. Your solicitor can make a written request for return, supported by representations on why continued retention is no longer necessary, for example where the device has been imaged and the original is no longer required. If that is refused, an application can be made to the court for an order for delivery up.

Where the device is needed for work, that should be said early and specifically. A general complaint about inconvenience achieves little. A specific account of what is unavailable and to whom carries more weight.

Source: PACE 1984 s22 (retention).

Part Five: After The Interview

What happens after a police interview, and how long until you hear back?

After an interview you will normally be released on pre-charge bail or released under investigation while enquiries continue, and there is no fixed timescale for the decision that follows. If you have attended a voluntary interview, you simply leave the police station and the investigation and the investigation continues.

Four outcomes are possible: charge, release on pre-charge bail, release under investigation, or no further action. Only the last of those is an ending.

What does “released under investigation” mean?

Released under investigation means you have been released without bail conditions while the investigation continues, with no statutory time limit and no date to return.

It is frequently treated as good news. It is not. It is the absence of conditions, which is welcome, combined with the absence of a clock, which is not.

Someone on pre-charge bail has a date and a statutory framework of review. Someone released under investigation has neither, and cases in that position have been known to run for a year or more without a decision. The practical response is to keep the matter live: periodic contact with the officer, and representations at the point the evidential picture is complete.

Source: PACE s50A; Crown Prosecution Service, Bail guidance.

Does pre-charge bail mean you will be charged?

No. Pre-charge bail means the investigation is continuing and the police consider conditions necessary, not that a charging decision has been made.

Bail can be granted with or without conditions. Conditions must be necessary and proportionate, and they can be varied or challenged where they are not.

How long can police bail last, and how many times can it be extended?

Since 28 October 2022 the initial pre-charge bail period is normally three months, extendable in stages by senior officers, and beyond nine months only by a magistrates’ court.

The 2022 reforms replaced the presumption against bail introduced in 2017, which had driven the widespread use of release under investigation. Bail is now decided on the facts of the case rather than against a presumption.

Different periods apply where a case has been referred to the Crown Prosecution Service for a charging decision.

Source: PACE ss47ZA to 47ZM and s50A, as amended by the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Act 2022, applying to arrests on or after 28 October 2022.

What is pre-charge engagement, and can it stop a case going further?

Pre-charge engagement is voluntary dialogue between a suspect’s lawyers and the investigator before any charging decision, and it can result in no further action where it addresses the evidential gap.

The Attorney General’s Guidelines on Disclosure recognise it, and it is voluntary on both sides. Neither the suspect nor the investigator is obliged to take part.

What it can involve:

• Identifying lines of enquiry that have not been pursued
• Providing material the investigator does not have, such as documents, communications or financial records
• Identifying witnesses, or clarifying what a witness would say
• Agreeing the scope of a digital device examination
• Making written representations on whether the evidential and public interest stages of the charging test are met

The reason it matters is one of timing. Once a charge is brought, the question becomes how to defend it. Before a charge, the question is still whether there should be one at all, and that is a materially easier question to influence.

It is not available in every case, and it is not without risk. Material provided is material the investigation did not previously have. Whether to engage, and on what, is a case-by-case decision.

Source: Attorney General’s Guidelines on Disclosure, pre-charge engagement provisions.

Good pre-charge engagement can highly effective in bringing an investigation to an end before charge. It requires careful thought and focus as well as analysis of the issues in the case.

Mark Jones, Partner, Payne Hicks Beach

Part Six: Aftermath and Reputation

What does “no further action” mean, and does it show on a DBS check?

No further action means the police or CPS have decided not to charge, but the arrest and investigation may still remain on police records and be disclosed on an enhanced DBS check.

This is the point at which most people discover that a case ending and a record disappearing are two different things.

No further action is not a conviction and is not a caution. It will not appear on a basic or standard DBS check. But the arrest is recorded on the Police National Computer, and on an enhanced check a chief officer may disclose non-conviction information where they reasonably believe it to be relevant and consider that it ought to be disclosed.

Two routes exist: applying for deletion of the record, and making representations where disclosure is proposed on an enhanced check.

Can the press name you before you are charged?

A person under criminal investigation generally has a reasonable expectation of privacy in that fact until they are charged, following the Supreme Court’s decision in Bloomberg LP v ZXC.

That decision settled a question argued for years. As a general rule, information that a person is under criminal investigation, prior to charge, attracts a reasonable expectation of privacy.

Three qualifications matter. The rule is general, not absolute, and it can be displaced on the facts. It is a starting point in a balancing exercise against freedom of expression, not an automatic bar to publication. And it protects the fact of the investigation, not everything connected with the underlying subject matter.

Alongside it sits police guidance to the effect that suspects should not be named before charge save in exceptional circumstances.

If publication appears imminent, the practical steps are to establish what the publisher intends to say and on what basis, to make representations, and, where necessary, to seek injunctive relief. All of that is time-sensitive, and the window is usually short.

Source: Bloomberg LP v ZXC [2022] UKSC 5; College of Policing media relations guidance.

How do you protect your reputation during an investigation?

Reputation management during a live investigation runs alongside the defence, not after it, and the available routes are privacy, confidence, data protection and injunctive relief.

The common error is sequencing: treating reputation as something to be repaired once the criminal matter concludes. By then the material is published and the search results are established.

Where employers, regulators or professional bodies are engaged, they usually move on a different timetable from the police, and they often reach their own decisions before any charging decision is made. Managing those obligations is part of the same exercise.