Law Enforcement (Powers and Responsibilities) Act 2002

A police officer may, without a warrant, arrest a person if—

the police officer suspects on reasonable grounds that the person is committing or has committed an offence, and

the police officer is satisfied that the arrest is reasonably necessary for any one or more of the following reasons—

to stop the person committing or repeating the offence or committing another offence,

to stop the person fleeing from a police officer or from the location of the offence,

to enable inquiries to be made to establish the person’s identity if it cannot be readily established or if the police officer suspects on reasonable grounds that identity information provided is false,

to ensure that the person appears before a court in relation to the offence,

to obtain property in the possession of the person that is connected with the offence,

to preserve evidence of the offence or prevent the fabrication of evidence,

to prevent the harassment of, or interference with, any person who may give evidence in relation to the offence,

to protect the safety or welfare of any person (including the person arrested),

because of the nature and seriousness of the offence.

A police officer may also arrest a person without a warrant if directed to do so by another police officer. The other police officer is not to give such a direction unless the other officer may lawfully arrest the person without a warrant.

The arresting police officer or another police officer must, as soon as is reasonably practicable, take the person who has been arrested under this section before an authorised officer to be dealt with according to law.

A person who has been lawfully arrested under this section may be detained by any police officer under Part 9 for the purpose of investigating whether the person committed the offence for which the person has been arrested and for any other purpose authorised by that Part.

This section does not authorise a person to be arrested for an offence for which the person has already been tried.

For the purposes of this section, property is connected with an offence if it is connected with the offence within the meaning of Part 5.

In this section—