After an arrest
- How long can police keep your fingerprints and DNA?England & Wales
Police can take your fingerprints, DNA sample and photograph without consent once arrested for a recordable offence. What happens to them afterwards depends entirely on whether you are convicted.
- Deleting your record: the ACRO process, and what it does not coverEngland & Wales
How to apply to have fingerprints, a DNA profile or a PNC record deleted through the national Record Deletion Process — and the little-known gap: custody photographs are not covered by it.
- Accepting a caution: what it actually meansEngland & Wales
A simple caution is a formal admission of guilt, not a way to avoid one. It goes on the Police National Computer and can still surface on a standard or enhanced DBS check years later.
- Pre-charge bail time limits, and released under investigationEngland & Wales
Leaving the police station is not the end of the case. Pre-charge bail now has a 3-month limit that can be extended; being released under investigation is a different status that the bail-period limit is not written to cover. The difference matters.
- Filming the policeEngland & Wales
Filming police officers doing their job in a public place is lawful. There is no general power to make you stop, delete footage, or hand over your device — and the Terrorism Act offence people cite is narrower than widely believed.
- Fingerprints and DNA in Scotland: how long are they kept?Scotland
PACE does not apply in Scotland. Section 18 of the Criminal Procedure (Scotland) Act 1995 governs what can be taken on arrest, and prompt destruction is the default if you are not convicted.
- Recorded police warnings and fiscal fines in ScotlandScotland
Scotland does not operate a police caution scheme — "caution" in Scottish disclosure law means one given in England, Wales or Northern Ireland. The real alternatives here are the recorded police warning and the fiscal fine.
- Released by police in Scotland: liberation and undertakingsScotland
Scotland has two separate release mechanisms under the Criminal Justice (Scotland) Act 2016 — investigative liberation, capped by law at 28 days, and release on undertaking after charge, which has no statutory maximum at all.