PACE 1984 s.61A
Definition
The Police and Criminal Evidence Act 1984 provision (inserted by the Criminal Justice Act 2003) allowing a UK constable to compel a handwriting sample from a detained suspect without their consent, for use in investigation of a recordable offence.
- Jurisdiction
- England and Wales
- Inserted by
- Criminal Justice Act 2003
- Power
- Takes a footwear impression from a detained suspect
- Consent
- Not required if arrested or charged with a recordable offence
Common questions
What offence threshold triggers s.61A?+
The impression must be taken in connection with a recordable offence, the same threshold that applies to fingerprints under PACE, and the person must have been arrested for, charged with, or informed they will be reported for that offence.
Why is s.61A sometimes confused with a power to compel handwriting?+
PACE 1984 has no provision compelling a handwriting sample; s.61A covers footwear impressions only. Document examiners instead rely on voluntary request exemplars or course-of-business writing already in existence, which is why handwriting collection is governed by different evidential rules than biometric sampling under PACE.
Related terms
- Character Inventory
- The pre-collection analysis of the questioned document to identify all letters, numerals, and special characters it contains, which then governs the comparable-text...
- Comparable Text
- The requirement that the exemplar set contains multiple repetitions of each letter, numeral, and character type that appears in the questioned document,...
- Contemporaneity
- The requirement that the exemplar set includes writings produced at approximately the same time as the questioned document, to avoid comparing writing...
- Course-of-Business Writings
- Handwriting exemplars collected from writings the subject produced in the normal course of their life, before the case arose, without knowledge that...
- Gilbert V. California (1967)
- US Supreme Court decision holding that compelled handwriting exemplars do not constitute testimonial self-incrimination protected by the Fifth Amendment, because handwriting is...
- Natural Variation
- The normal within-writer fluctuation in individual features across repetitions of the same letter or writing task; an examiner assesses whether questioned-writing variation...
- Request Writings
- Handwriting exemplars produced by the person of interest specifically for comparison purposes, under conditions controlled by the investigator or examiner; also called...
- Section 73 IEA / BSA 2023
- The Indian Evidence Act 1872 provision (carried forward into the Bharatiya Sakshya Adhiniyam 2023) empowering a court to direct any person to...
- Sufficient Quantity
- The requirement that the exemplar set contains enough repetitions of each significant individual characteristic to allow the examiner to establish the writer's...