People's rights if they are arrested
People are often held at a police station while they wait to be questioned. This is known as being in custody. In this situation everyone has rights.
These include being able to get in touch with a friend or a family member, and also having access to legal advice.
The Government has a guide called 'Being arrested: your rights', that tells you what the rights mean, and the process that the police use.
Getting legal advice in custody
People in police custody have the right to free legal advice before they are questioned by the police. This advice is usually provided by a 'duty solicitor' which is a lawyer who advises people in custody.
The police will sometimes contact a service called the Defence Solicitor Call Centre, to arrange legal advice to be provided for the person being held in custody.
Some people prefer to get legal advice from their own lawyer. They are responsible for paying for any costs of that advice themselves.
The main area where it's really important that a young person has a lawyer with them at the police station, and ideally, a specialist youth justice lawyer, is for the police interview. There's a number of things that a lawyer can do that's really important at the police station. They get what's called disclosure from a police officer, so they get a bit more information about the reason for your arrest, that child or the appropriate adult that's with them, usually a parent, would not be given that information, and it's really important for a lawyer, and especially a youth justice specialist lawyer who understands the way to communicate with young people, that the factors that might have led that child to be there, the particular vulnerabilities. And it's really important that they talk with that young person, try and find out as much information and piece together what's gone on, why they're there, what they've been accused of, what the evidence is, and then advise them on the best thing to do in interview.
Useful terms on being arrested
More on being arrested
For more information about your rights and the custody process, another good place to start is with the government official site Gov.uk. Have a look at their "Being arrested: your rights" page.