England & Wales · Scotland
Know your rights — and where they stop.
Every other UK guide tells you your rights. This one also tells you where they run out — because “never tell them anything” is wrong, and sometimes a criminal offence.
In Scotland? Read the Scottish version of when you have to answer — the rules are not identical.
Every page answers three questions
You must
Refusing is a criminal offence. Schedule 7 at a port. Naming the driver. Stopping your vehicle.
You can refuse
No penalty for saying no — and the source that says so, quoted on the page.
It costs you either way
Lawful to refuse, but it carries a penalty or an inference. This is the column nobody else has.
65.7%
of the 34,867 stop and searches published for 2026-07 ended in no further action. And 62.5% were drugs searches under s.23 of the Misuse of Drugs Act — not the s.1 PACE power most guides lead with.
By situation
Stopped in the street or a vehicle
Searches, your details, driving stops.
9 pages
Police interviews
The caution, no comment, voluntary interviews.
3 pages
Arrested and in custody
The solicitor, the clock, what to ask for.
7 pages
Someone at your door
Police, bailiffs, TV Licensing, immigration.
12 pages
Ports and airports
Schedule 7 — where the right to silence stops.
1 page
Phones and devices
Passwords, extraction, s.49 notices.
2 pages
Protest and public order
Conditions, the 2023 offences, what refusing costs.
2 pages
After an arrest
Bail, cautions, DNA, deleting your record.
8 pages
Why you can check us
- Nothing is asserted without a source. Every “you must” and “you can refuse” carries the supporting text quoted verbatim. Read every source.
- No claimed review that did not happen. No solicitor has signed these pages off, so there is no “expert reviewed” badge anywhere.
- We never advise an offence. Where staying silent is unlawful, the page says so instead of pretending otherwise.
- Scotland is written, not translated. The law genuinely differs — a reworded England & Wales page would be wrong in ways that hurt readers.