Letter of rights: consultation

Background

Letter of Rights

The Letter of Rights provides important information on an individual's rights while being held in police custody. It is vital that the information is presented in a format that can be easily understood and retained by a person in custody (subject to risk assessment).

Following revision, the Letter of Rights and the 'easy read' Letter currently in use were introduced in January 2018 following commencement of part 1 of the Criminal Justice (Scotland) Act 2016. Following introduction, a number of issues were highlighted, and in response to these concerns, the Scottish Government undertook to consult on the Letter of Rights in 2019 in order to capture lessons learned and areas to be improved.

The current Letter of Rights is provided at Annex A and the 'easy read' version is provided at Annex B.

Criminal Justice (Scotland) Act 2016

Part 1 of the Criminal Justice (Scotland) Act 2016 (the 2016 Act) provided a number of key changes to the arrest and custody procedures and provisions for persons coming into police custody. These have been the most significant changes to arrest and custody procedures since the Criminal Procedure (Scotland) Act 1995 (the 1995 Act). The 2016 Act received Royal Assent on 13 January 2016 and Part 1 of the Act commenced in January 2018.