| Short Title: | Policing and Crime Act 2017 |
| Type: | Act |
| Parliament: | Parliament of the United Kingdom |
| Year: | 2017 |
| Citation: | 2017 c. 3 |
| Introduced Commons: | Amber Rudd, Home Secretary[1] |
| Introduced Lords: | Baroness Williams of Trafford, Minister of State for Countering Extremism[2] [3] |
| Territorial Extent: | United Kingdom
|
| Royal Assent: | 31 January 2017 |
| Commencement: | 31 January 2017 (s. 124, 164, 165, 167, 179 and 180 - 184) 31 March 2017 (s. 76, 159, 158, 173, 174, and schedule 19) Other sections come into force by Statutory Instrument or by order.[4] |
| Status: | Current |
| Original Text: | https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2017/3/contents/enacted |
| Legislation History: | https://services.parliament.uk/bills/2016-17/policingandcrime.html |
| Revised Text: | https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2017/3/contents |
| Uk-Leg Title: | Policing and Crime Act 2017 |
The Policing and Crime Act 2017 (c. 3) is an omnibus act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It received royal assent on 31 January 2017.
The act enacts various changes to existing rules involving PCCs, complaints through the IPCC, amendments to PACE 1984 etc.
One notable change involves the expansion of powers to police staff and introduces voluntary police community support officers (PCSOs). It is also expands the powers of a PCSO to "any power or duty of a constable, other than a power or duty specified in Part 1 of Schedule 3B (excluded powers and duties)".[5] Part 6 of the act brings clarity to the classifying guns under the Firearms Act 1968, based on recommendations from the Law Commission.[6]
See also: Police and Criminal Evidence Act 1984. Another change relates to police bail, which can now only be authorised by an officer of inspector rank or higher (so normally a suspect will now be released without bail if not charged), and extending this period is now only possible once by authorisation of a superintendent officer, or again by a magistrates' court; previously it was possible for police to effectively restrain a person indefinitely by extending the bail period every 28 days. Controversially this has led police forces to adopt an alternative method of 'release under investigation' (RUI) with no time limits or conditions, requiring a suspect to respond by post.[7] [8] [9] [10] [11]
In December 2020, Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire & Rescue Services released a report on RUI.[12]
In November 2017, Hertfordshire Constabulary released under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 a copy of the template RUI form used by them.[13]
The Act also offers a pardon to men convicted for homosexual acts that are no longer considered criminal offences.[14] This is sometimes informally referred to as the Alan Turing law, named for Alan Turing, the mathematician and World War II codebreaker, who was convicted of gross indecency in 1952.