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Sir Robert Peel sent the first 3,000 policemen onto the streets of London (1829)

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Sir Robert Peel sent the first 3,000 policemen onto the streets of London (1829)

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On the weekend of the 10-12 April 1981 hundreds of mostly black youths rioted in Brixton, South London.

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A useful summary

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BBC NEWS | Programmes | BBC Parliament | Q&A: The Scarman Report

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The Act was a response to the Brixton riots of 1981 as well as the Scarman report.

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The Police and Criminal Evidence Act 1984 codes of practice regulate police powers and protect public rights.

Overview

This page covers the Police and Criminal Evidence Act 1984 ( PACE) and the accompanying PACE codes of practice, which establish the powers of the police to combat crimes while protecting the rights of the public.

PACE codes of practice

PACE sets out to strike the right balance between the powers of the police and the rights and freedoms of the public. Maintaining that balance is a central element of PACE.

The PACE codes of practice cover:

stop and search

arrest

detention

investigation

identification

interviewing detainees

Current versions of the codes

The latest version of the College of Policing Authorised Professional Practice on detention and custody is published on the College of Policing website under Authorised Professional Practice in the detention and custody section

Previous versions

Previous versions of the codes are shown below, by the date they came into force.

Consultations

You can also read previous consultations which contributed to the development of revised codes.

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Police and Criminal Evidence Act 1984 (PACE) codes of practice

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The Police and Criminal Evidence Act 1984 codes of practice regulate police powers and protect public rights.

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Stephen Lawrence murder: A timeline of how the story unfolded

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A timeline setting out the history of the Stephen Lawrence case.

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The shortcomings of the police service were painfully exposed in the Macpherson report, particularly in the context of its relationship with minority communities, and the service was labelled as ‘institutionally racist’. The Macpherson report effectively completed the change in policing philosophy that Scarman had begun in terms of the service’s approach to diversity. Rarely, if ever, has the British police service publicly been laid so bare.

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De Menezes was a 27-year-old electrician who was shot dead by police, who mistook him for a suicide bomber, on 22 July 2005. Officers were hunting terrorists who had tried to bomb London the previous day, two weeks after the 7 July attacks in the capital killed 52 people. He was shot seven times in the head and once in the shoulder at point-blank range by officers from the Met police’s firearms unit.

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The Birmingham riots of 2005 occurred on Saturday 22 October and Sunday 23 October 2005. The riots were derived from ethnic tensions between the Caribbean and British asian communities, with the spark for the riot being an alleged gang rape of a teenage black girl by a group of South Asian men. The rape allegation has never been substantiated and no evidence was found to support the rumour. The riots were connected to the deaths of two men, Isaiah Young-Sam and Aaron James.

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Mark Duggan and the Riots in English Cities (2011)

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Mark Duggan and the Riots in English Cities (2011)

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Mark Duggan was shot dead by an officer in Tottenham, north London, after police believed he was carrying a gun - his death sparked riots in English cities across the country for nearly a week.

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n 4 August 2011, Mark Duggan was shot and killed by police in Tottenham, north London, sparking the largest civil unrest the UK has seen for a generation. The disturbance quickly spread and for five nights, London, Birmingham, and other major cities in England were engulfed by fire and violence.

On the 10th anniversary of the riots, community leaders and frontline workers reflect on what they witnessed and the impact of those nights.

There was a gathering of about 40 people, mainly young women, because it was led by the mother of Mark Duggan's children, Simone Wilson. We went along to a police station and expected the police to have anticipated our arrival. We sent messages to them. When we got to the station, we agreed among ourselves that the women should go inside because we didn't want the police to feel threatened. The police said that they couldn't speak to them, because the IPCC was investigating the matter, but that was totally incorrect.

When the women left, the police came out and drew down the shutters. That really sent the most negative of signals to those who were outside. People started to use social media to tell others about the disrespect shown to the Duggan family over the last couple of days, how his parents were waiting to hear official confirmation of what they were seeing on the media [that Mark had been killed]. As the day wore on, it just built up and built up and built up. Had the police dealt with the small group that had originally turned up, we wouldn't even be talking today. (In February 2012 the police and the IPCC were forced to publicly apologise to the Duggan family and acknowledged it was their responsibility to deliver the death message).

Stafford Scott of Tottenham Rights at new exhibition 'War Inna Babylon: The Community's Struggle For Truths And Rights' at the ICA. Photograph: Tim P Whitby/Getty Images for Institute of Contemporary Arts

I understood the young people's frustration. I absolutely understood it. But I didn't understand why they decided to loot. I was on Broadwater Farm in 1985. There was no looting whatsoever. The young people, myself included, took anger on those who created the anger, the police. But in 2011 too many young people lost their minds, then it was an uprising.

My mum lives in Tottenham, Bruce Grove. She had to go miles as a pensioner, to buy bread, miles to get her pension from the Post Office. So it really tore me up to see Tottenham burning like that.

There are similarities to 1985. In 1985, we tried to leave the estate to protest at the station and they wouldn't allow us. The feeling was the same; that we were being denied our right to be heard. And we know what Martin Luther King says, about voiceless people; riots are the language of the voiceless.

On the 10th anniversary, we're going to be at the ICA in the Mall [at the War Inna Babylon exhibition]. We've taken the frontlines in the fight against racism off the estates, from out of the hood and we're bringing it uptown.

Rev Betsy Blatchley: 'The anger and frustration came out of a lot of different things.' Photograph: Handout

We were aware of what had happened in Tottenham. There were around six shops that were starting to close and there was this real sense that something was going to happen in Hackney. I'd walked down to meet Rob Wickham, who was then the vicar of St John's Hackney, the big parish church in the centre. And he said I think we should walk down towards Mare Street just to have a look at what's going on.

It then became clear that there was now a real confrontation between the police and a lot of the young people. We walked around trying to calm things down as much as possible.

When I came back that evening, there was a car set on fire and shop that was completely looted and wrecked. The next day, there was still a lot of anxiety, tension and unrest. Talking to one fairly well-educated and well-off anarchist, I felt there was a degree of stirring things up as well. The police said all we could do was hold our line and hope for the best.

There was a comment from David Cameron that it was criminality pure and simple. And I thought, it's not simple at all, it's very complex. I think people got involved for a lot of different reasons. I can never condone any sort of violence or damage to property, but I think the anger and frustration came out of a lot of different things, with the Mark Duggan case a catalyst. A lot of young people who, rightly or wrongly, felt aggrieved and in some cases left behind.

There was one young man who was a member of my congregation who wasn't involved in Hackney, but he had just received some very bad personal news and he admitted to kicking a window in. He was accused of stealing but he always maintained he didn't. I wrote a quick character reference for him and he was sentenced to three months. I went to visit him in a young people's unit, and he was so hopeful and he really tried to turn things around and do everything right, but I just thought this was a young black British man who now had a criminal record and how that was going to affect his life.

At the time of the 2011 London riots, Derrick Campbell was the UK tsar for David Cameron's government overseeing organised crime, gangs, and criminal use of firearms. Photograph: Christopher Thomond/The Guardian

When the riots happened, I was one of the people advising then prime minister David Cameron. We were trying our best to put the genie back in the bottle. I did a lot of press interviews - about 27 interviews in one day - lots of stakeholder engagement, and lots of talking to the heads of gangs. While we had mass public disorder spreading across the country, the rioting and looting, there were also some very sinister things going on.

I wasn't at home, I spent most of my days meeting people from the crime fraternity and other community leaders from the churches, the mosques and gurdwara's, to work with them and create a collective approach as civic leaders to 'turn this thing off'. I was very critical of the establishment, such as the local authorities, who in my view basically hid behind barricades and just let their cities burn. And the media who I felt were very poor and culpable of exacerbating the disturbance. They wanted to have something to talk about.

At the time, young people felt they were subjected to unacceptable levels of overpolicing and there was a sense of disfranchisement. The shooting of Mark Duggan was said to be the reason for the disturbances but that wasn't the case, it was simply the spark. We were working for years within the community and many felt abandoned and forgotten by the establishment. Long story short, society was broken.

So all of that underground frustration, coupled with the fact that the young people felt a sense of injustice and reduced opportunities, all of those things together created the perfect storm. We also knew there were people who saw an opportunity and were deliberately agitating the water. They mobilised their networks, which were strategically placed in different parts of the country, and created the rapid spread of disorder. I don't think you could replicate that again.

I remember one of the biggest complaints from the Wolverhampton community was that the police didn't do anything to protect their businesses, because the police thought it was better to protect the new multimillion pound bus station. So all the shopkeepers had to take it into their own hands to protect their shops. That caused even more anger at the police.

Many lives were ruined by it, because you had young people who had never been involved in crime before, who simply got caught up in the moment, and they are now paying a heavy price for that.

At the time, I was a junior officer at Islington fire station. I was in the office about 10 o'clock, making a cup of tea and I saw on BBC News a burning building and riots. I thought where is that? Then saw it was in Tottenham, and our lights came on, the bells went down and we were sent to a holding station.

En route to a fire call we drove down Green Lanes in Haringey, where there are 24-hour Turkish fruit and vegetable shops. There were loads of the guys who worked at the shop standing there with baseball bats [to protect their assets].

Right behind the shopping centre, there was a burning car. We got off and started putting the car out. I asked my driver to send a message that we didn't need any further fire engines as I thought that would be the end of it really. He said: "Sam, have you seen that shop over there is alight?" And my heart sank. There was tension in the air and a lot of people running around. It became very obvious that we were right in the middle of civil disturbance.

There was mass looting going on. Kids were taking wheelie bins out of people's front gardens, running them up to the Carphone Warehouse and throwing stock in. I couldn't just walk away from that because above Wood Green shopping centre is a housing estate, with about 500 houses and flats. So I put in an urgent assistance call to control. It was four of us dealing with a fire which needed probably 16-20 people. The cavalry did eventually turn up.

I'm from the area and as a kid I was always kicking around Wood Green. What I saw those kids doing was a sign of the times. I know that the London fire brigade had been doing community work and certainly in my time as the station commander at Tottenham, we've done loads of community intervention locally.

The headline of this article was amended on 11 August 2021 to make clear the riots occurred in England, not across the UK.

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'The Mark Duggan case was a catalyst': the 2011 England riots 10 years on

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n 4 August 2011, Mark Duggan was shot and killed by police in Tottenham, north London, sparking the largest civil unrest the UK has seen for a generation. The disturbance quickly spread and for five nights, London, Birmingham, and other major cities in England were engulfed by fire and violence.

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Theresa May announces reform of police stop-and-search powers (2014)

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Theresa May announces reform of police stop-and-search powers (2014)

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Theresa May, the home secretary, announces a “comprehensive package” reforming the use of police stop and search powers. May tells MPs that as many as a 250,000 street searches were probably carried out illegally the previous year, with black people seven times more likely to be stopped by the police than white people.

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The home secretary, Theresa May, is to introduce a "comprehensive package" reforming the use of police stop-and-search powers after telling MPs that as many as a quarter of a million street searches last year were probably carried out illegally.

The home secretary said she wanted the battery of revised codes, best practice schemes and new methods of accountability to lead to a significant reduction in the use of stop and search, more intelligence-led targeted operations, and better arrest ratios.

Black people are still seven times more likely to be stopped by the police than white people, with only about one in 10 of those stops leading to an arrest.

But during a Commons statement on Wednesday it became clear that May has lost her battle to persuade Downing Street that legislation to curb the use of stop and search should be included in this summer's Queen's speech - the annual legislative programme - the last before next year's general election.

"I want to make myself absolutely clear: if the numbers do not come down, if stop and search does not become more targeted, if those stop-to-arrest ratios do not improve considerably, the government will return with primary legislation to make those things happen," May told the Commons.

"Nobody wins when stop and search is misapplied. It is a waste of police time. It is unfair, especially to young, black men. It is bad for public confidence in the police," she told MPs.

May justified the need for a comprehensive reform package by citing the findings of a study by Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Constabulary that showed 27% of stop-and-search records they looked at did not contain reasonable grounds to search people, even though they had been endorsed by supervising officers

"If the HMIC sample is accurate, that means more than a quarter of the million or so stops carried out under the Police and Criminal Evidence Act last year could have been illegal," May said.

A Home Office consultation launched last July on the future of stop-and-search powers has generated more than 5,000 responses. They showed that young people and black people had very different attitudes towards stop and search than white and older age groups.

The package of reforms proposed by May now includes:

A revised code of practice making clear what constitutes "reasonable grounds for suspicion" under the Police and Criminal Evidence Act, which covers the vast majority of stops carried out. Officers who fail to use their powers properly will face disciplinary proceedings.

Telling chief constables and police commissioners they must open up police stop-and-search records to public scrutiny, under threat of statutory legislation.

Review national police training to include "unconscious bias awareness training" to reduce possibility of prejudice in officers' approach to stop and search.

Official assessment of individual officer's fitness to use stop-and-search powers.

Launch a new "best use of stop and search scheme" which will include better recording and improved public accountability and will limit the use of section 60 "no suspicion" stop-and-search powers to 15 hours.

May launched the consultation last July saying she wanted to introduce proposals to scale back the use of police stop-and-search powers and ensure their "fair and effective use".

At the time, the home secretary said it was no longer sustainable that black people were still seven times more likely to be searched on the street than white people. She also said it had been seen as sharply divisive in Britain's black and minority ethnic communities.

May had planned to announce cabinet approval of her proposals before last Christmas, but she ran into strong Downing Street concerns that the move could leave the Tories looking "soft on crime".

Nick Clegg, who chairs the cabinet's home affairs committee, is said to have backed May's package but it was not sufficient to end the standoff.

The Metropolitan and West Midlands police forces have already massively scaled back their use of stop and search as part of a successful pilot scheme using a more "intelligence-led approach".

In the Met, the use of stop and search has fallen by 20% since 2012 and the use of section 60 "no suspicion" stops by 90% over the same period. At the same time stabbings have fallen by a third, shootings by 40%. The arrest ratio has gone up and complaints have gone down.

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Theresa May announces reform of police stop-and-search powers

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The home secretary, Theresa May, is to introduce a "comprehensive package" reforming the use of police stop-and-search powers after telling MPs that as many as a quarter of a million street searches last year were probably carried out illegally.

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An independent review into the treatment of, and outcomes for Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic individuals in the criminal justice system. The Lammy Review found significant racial bias in the UK justice system.

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An independent review into the treatment of, and outcomes for Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic individuals in the criminal justice system.

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The biggest ever anti-racism protests spread across 260 UK towns and cities after the murder of George Floyd by a Minneapolis police officer. The Black Lives Matter protests come after the Met and other forces responded to coronavirus lockdown regulations by massively increasing stop and search, and many of those taking part cit police harassment as a factor.

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Hundreds of demonstrators took to the streets of west London on Sunday in the first ever Million People March to protest against systemic racism in the UK.

Organisers hope the march will continue the conversations about race started by the Black Lives Matter protests and give minority ethnic people "a louder voice".

The march takes place this year in lieu of the annual Notting Hill carnival, which is being held online only because of coronavirus. Organisers said they aimed to incorporate the same spirit of freedom through peaceful protest.

About 400 demonstrators walked along Bayswater Road from Notting Hill tube station, finishing in Hyde Park.

At several points along the way the crowd stopped, sitting down in the road and even breaking into a rendition of Redemption Song by Bob Marley, as demonstrators raised their fists.

Protesters stopping to sit in the road during the Million People March demonstration in London on 30 August. Photograph: Anadolu Agency/Getty Images

The march was organised by Ken Hinds, an adviser to Scotland Yard, Sasha Johnson, a youth worker and activist, the rapper 2 Badda, and the author Anthony Spencer.

Spencer said fighting systemic racism was a "huge task" and likened the struggle to rowing "from one side of the Atlantic to the other".

He said the movement aimed to introduce a new race offenders register, to prosecute those committing race offences. "We're looking at bringing in laws to protect our black citizens. We protect everything else. We protect dogs, we protect eagles, we protect dead statues. Let's protect people for a change. Let's protect black people.

"Once we see there's actual true intention to protect the lives of black people and change systemic suffering, we will stop marching and we will work with the government.

"Racism has been defined by the white population, not by us. We need to redefine racism to start this conversation again."

A protester sits in the road blocking the traffic as people gather in Westbourne Park for the inaugural Million People March from Notting Hill to Hyde Park in London on 30 August. Photograph: Justin Tallis/AFP/Getty Images

Hinds previously accused the Metropolitan police of discrimination after he was threatened with arrest for organising the march. The force eventually dropped its investigation into him after accepting that as a political protest the march was exempt from Covid-19 regulations.

Under the Health Protection (Coronavirus) Regulations 2020, protests of more than 30 people are allowed as long as the organisers have completed a risk assessment.

The Million People March comes the day after thousands of people gathered in Trafalgar Square in central London to protest against lockdown restrictions and the wearing of face masks. Police attempted to disperse crowds on Saturday and arrested two men on suspicion of breaking newly imposed coronavirus regulations.

Organisers of Sunday's demonstration reminded those involved several times throughout the day to adhere to physical distancing measures as much as possible.

Johnson said she hoped the movement would "empower the community to strive for better".

"As a people, we're not going to stop until we have equal rights and justice," she said. "Our message is listen to us, hear our words, we want sustainable and tangible change.

"We don't just want tokenistic promises, we don't want it to come from a hegemonic standpoint. We want it to be for the people."

* This article was amended on 31 August 2020 to make clear that the two arrests were made at Saturday's protest, not Sunday's.

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Hundreds join march to protest against systemic racism in the UK

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Hundreds of demonstrators took to the streets of west London on Sunday in the first ever Million People March to protest against systemic racism in the UK. Organisers hope the march will continue the conversations about race started by the Black Lives Matter protests and give minority ethnic people "a louder voice".