Police Powers and Responsibilities Act 2000

A magistrate or justice may extend the detention period for a person if satisfied—

the nature and seriousness of the offence require the extension; and

further detention of the person is necessary—

to preserve or obtain evidence of the offence or another indictable offence; or

to complete the investigation into the offence or another indictable offence; or

to continue questioning the person about the offence or another indictable offence; and

the investigation is being conducted properly and without unreasonable delay; and

the person, or the person’s lawyer, has been given the opportunity to make submissions about the application.

An order extending the detention period may authorise the questioning or further questioning of the person for a reasonable time, of not more than 8 hours, and include the time the justice or magistrate considers should be allowed as time out.

A justice who is not a magistrate does not have power to make an order authorising questioning or further questioning of a person for a period that would extend the questioning period for the person to more than 12 hours.Example for subsection (3)—If, in the initial detention period, a person has been questioned for 4 hours and an earlier order under this section extends the questioning period to 9 hours, a justice who is not a magistrate may only extend the questioning period for another 3 hours.