Police Scotland and the Authority’s stance on children in custody

The Scottish Parliament and Government have committed to incorporate the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) into law. UNCRC puts children’s rights into the heart of what public bodies do and ensures that children’s rights are protected and upheld.

Although UNCRC has not yet been incorporated into law, Police Scotland have committed to upholding the principles of the UNCRC:

“We will uphold the rights of children and young people as set out in the UNCRC by embedding it within all policies and procedures”.

Both the Authority and Police Scotland recognise that police custody is not always the most appropriate place for a child or young person. Whilst a child may be physically safe in police custody, the experience of being in custody may lead to lasting trauma. However, there is often not an alternative place of safety available.

“Holding our children in police custody cells is not an appropriate setting and not in the interest of the child. What is lacking is suitable and available alternatives” – Martyn Evans, SPA Chair

Police Scotland work closely with partners to identify and secure alternative places of safety for children when they come into conflict with the law. However, as it stands the law requires children, who need criminal justice samples taken, or who need to be interviewed for a serious offence, to be taken to a police station for that purpose. As such there is little the police can do in these circumstances. 

However, it is often the case that even when the police have completed their investigative processes and no longer need to hold the child in custody, there are no alternative places of safety available. This places a requirement on the police to hold the child in police cells for longer than is absolutely necessary to protect them from causing harm to themselves or others.  We do not think this is acceptable in today’s society.

The Authority and Police Scotland are committed to enhancing the partnership approach, further reducing the number of children that experience police custody.

To highlight their concerns and encourage solution focussed discussion the Authority and Police Scotland jointly hosted the ‘Places of Safety for Children in Conflict with the Law Event’ in November 2022. This brought together partners from social work, the Children and Young People’s Centre for Justice, the Children and Young People’s Commissioner, Scottish Government representatives and civil society organisations.

The key objectives for the event were to:

• Build awareness of the issue with key stakeholders through positive, solutions- focussed discussion.
• Promote the policing position that the police custody setting is not an appropriate environment for children and should be viewed by all stakeholders as a last resort.
• Generate discussion and debate about the ‘right thing to do’ for the child.
• Identify and agree the challenges and constraints currently preventing the ‘right thing’ from happening.
• Consider next steps to move this discussion forward.

This event led to the development of several recommendations that will support enhancement of local partnerships and protect children from unnecessary trauma and criminalisation.