Custody Record

PACE Code C requires that a separate custody record must be opened as soon as practicable for each person brought to a police station under arrest or arrested at the station having gone there voluntarily or attending a police station in answer to street bail, and that all information recorded under the Code must be recorded as soon as practicable in the custody record unless otherwise specified. The custody officer is responsible for the custody record's accuracy and completeness and for making sure the record or copy of the record accompanies a detainee if they are transferred to another police station.

The record is not solely an internal police document. Code C gives the detainee's solicitor and appropriate adult a right to inspect it: they must be permitted to inspect the whole of the detainee's custody record as soon as practicable after their arrival at the station and at any other time on request, whilst the person is detained, and the detainee or their representative may also inspect the original record after release, provided reasonable notice is given. Entries must generally be timed and signed by the person making them, and any action requiring the authority of an officer of a specified rank must have that officer's name and rank noted in the record.