Every detained suspect has a free, non-means-tested right to legal advice — and the rules surrounding it shape everything that follows in the police station.
What happens in custody can determine the outcome of a prosecution long before any court is involved. This chapter starts with the right to legal advice itself — free of any means or merits test — and the duty solicitor scheme, then looks at how that right is exercised and protected, including private consultation and the safeguards for vulnerable suspects who need an appropriate adult. It moves on to the narrow circumstances in which access to a solicitor can be delayed, the rules governing when an interview can begin and what a solicitor may do within it, and the modified right to silence with its statutory adverse inferences. It closes with the choice between answering questions, silence and a prepared statement, conflicts between co-suspects, and the exclusion of evidence and confessions under sections 78 and 76 of PACE.
