Can Police Interview Me Without a Solicitor?

The short answer

If you are detained and you ask for legal advice, the police normally cannot interview you until you have had it. PACE Code C, paragraph 6.6, says: “A detainee who wants legal advice may not be interviewed or continue to be interviewed until they have received such advice unless” one of four listed exceptions applies. The Home Office Notice of Rights and Entitlements says the same in plain terms: “If you ask for legal advice, the police are usually not allowed to ask you questions until you have had the chance to talk to a solicitor.”

The police can interview you without a solicitor if you have not asked for one, if you change your mind in the way Code C sets out, or in the narrow cases below. Each of the four exceptions needs an officer of inspector or superintendent rank to authorise or agree to it.

Your right to a solicitor

Section 58(1) of the Police and Criminal Evidence Act 1984 (PACE) says: “A person arrested and held in custody in a police station or other premises shall be entitled, if he so requests, to consult a solicitor privately at any time.” Section 58(4) adds that you “must be permitted to consult a solicitor as soon as is practicable except to the extent that delay is permitted by this section.”

Code C paragraph 6.1 says that, unless Annex B applies, detainees must be told “they may at any time consult and communicate privately with a solicitor, whether in person, in writing or by telephone, and that free independent legal advice is available.” The Notice of Rights and Entitlements puts it as: “The police must let you talk to a solicitor at any time, day or night, when you are at a police station.” GOV.UK says: “You have the right to free legal advice (legal aid) if you’re questioned at a police station.” (GOV.UK, Legal advice at the police station.)

You can also have the solicitor in the interview. Code C 6.8 says a detainee who has been permitted to consult a solicitor “shall be entitled on request to have the solicitor present when they are interviewed unless one of the exceptions in paragraph 6.6 applies.” The Notice says: “When the police ask you questions, you can ask for a solicitor to be in the room with you.”

Before every interview at the station, you should be reminded of the right. Code C 11.2 says the interviewer “should remind the suspect of their entitlement to free legal advice and that the interview can be delayed for legal advice to be obtained, unless one of the exceptions in paragraph 6.6 applies.”

The four exceptions in Code C 6.6

Code C 6.6 lists exactly four situations. They are summarised here with the Code’s own words.

(a) Access to legal advice has been delayed under Annex B

The delay must be authorised “by an officer of superintendent rank or above who has reasonable grounds for believing the exercise of the right to consult a solicitor will have one of the following consequences”. The consequences listed are:

• “interference with or harm to evidence of an indictable offence”;
• “interference with or physical injury to any person”;
• “the alerting of persons who are suspected of having committed an indictable offence but who have not been arrested for it”;
• “the hindering of the recovery of property obtained as a result of an indictable offence”; or
• that “the detained person has benefited from their criminal conduct (in accordance with Part 2 or 4 of the Proceeds of Crime Act 2002) and the recovery of the value of the property constituting the benefit will be hindered”.

PACE says the same. Section 58(6) permits delay only “in the case of a person who is in police detention for an indictable offence” and “if an officer of at least the rank of superintendent authorises it”, and sections 58(8) and 58(8A) set out equivalent grounds. GOV.UK summarises it as: “The police can make you wait for legal advice in serious cases, but only if a senior officer agrees.” The limits on this kind of delay are explained in the next section.

(b) Waiting for the solicitor would itself cause one of those consequences

This also needs “an officer of superintendent rank or above who has reasonable grounds for believing that delaying the interview to await legal advice will have any of the relevant consequences set out in (a) above.” It is not an inspector’s decision.

Code C Note 6A says the officer should, if practicable, ask the solicitor how long they will take to arrive, and: “If the solicitor is on their way or is to set off immediately, it will not normally be appropriate to begin an interview before they arrive.” Code C 6.7 says that once “sufficient information has been obtained to avert the risk, questioning must cease until the detainee has received legal advice” unless another exception applies.

(c) Your chosen solicitor is unavailable and you decline the duty solicitor

This applies where the solicitor you nominated or chose from a list “cannot be contacted”, “has previously indicated they do not wish to be contacted” or, “having been contacted, has declined to attend”, and “the detainee has been advised of the Duty Solicitor Scheme but has declined to ask for the duty solicitor”. Then the interview may go ahead “provided an officer of inspector rank or above has agreed to the interview proceeding.”

The duty solicitor is free and independent. GOV.UK says the duty solicitor is “available 24 hours a day and independent of the police”, and the Notice says: “The duty solicitor has nothing to do with the police.”

(d) You change your mind

If you say you “no longer wish to speak to a solicitor”, the interview can go ahead only after a set of steps in Code C 6.6(d). An officer of inspector rank or above must speak to you “to enquire about the reasons for their change of mind”, and reasonable efforts must be made to find out when the solicitor is expected and to tell them you have changed your mind. You must confirm “in writing that they want the interview to proceed without speaking or further speaking to a solicitor” by signing the custody record, and the inspector must give “authority in writing for the interview to proceed”.

At the start of the interview, the record must show that “if the solicitor arrives at the station before the interview is completed, the detainee will be so informed without delay and a break will be taken to allow them to speak to the solicitor if they wish, unless paragraph 6.6(a) applies”, and that “at any time during the interview, the detainee may again ask for legal advice and that if they do, a break will be taken to allow them to speak to the solicitor, unless paragraph 6.6(a), (b), or (c) applies.”

You do not have to explain why. Code C Note 6K says: “A detainee is not obliged to give reasons for declining legal advice and should not be pressed to do so.”

Limits on delaying legal advice (Annex B)

Code C Annex B, paragraph 1, allows delay only where the person “is in police detention, as in PACE, section 118(2), in connection with an indictable offence, has not yet been charged with an offence and an officer of superintendent rank or above” has reasonable grounds for believing that the listed consequences will follow.

• Only a particular solicitor. Annex B paragraph 3 says delay may be authorised only if the officer has reasonable grounds to believe “the solicitor the detainee wants to consult will, inadvertently or otherwise, pass on a message from the detainee or act in some other way” causing those consequences. In that case, “the detainee must be allowed to choose another solicitor.” Note B3 says such a decision “is likely to be a rare occurrence”.
• Not because of the advice you might get. Annex B paragraph 4 says access “may not be delayed on the grounds they might advise the detainee not to answer questions”.
• 36 hours at most. Annex B paragraph 6 says the rights may be delayed “only for as long as grounds exist and in no case beyond 36 hours after the relevant time as in PACE, section 41.” PACE s.58(5) says you “must be permitted to consult a solicitor within 36 hours from the relevant time”, and s.58(11) says there may be no further delay “once the reason for authorising delay ceases to subsist.” GOV.UK says: “The longest you can be made to wait before getting legal advice is 36 hours after arriving at the police station (or 48 hours for suspected terrorism).”
• Reasons must be given and recorded. PACE s.58(9) says that if delay is authorised “the detained person shall be told the reasons for it” and “the reason shall be noted on his custody record.” Annex B paragraph 13 says the grounds “shall be recorded and the detainee informed of them as soon as practicable.”

Terrorism and national security cases are different. PACE s.58(12) says: “Nothing in this section applies to a person arrested or detained under the terrorism provisions”, and the same subsection also excludes people arrested under section 27 of the National Security Act 2023 or detained under Part 1 of Schedule 3 to the Counter-Terrorism and Border Security Act 2019. This page does not cover those rules.

Silence when you have not been allowed a solicitor

Code C Annex B paragraph 15 says that when a detained suspect “is interviewed during any period for which access to legal advice has been delayed under this Annex, the court or jury may not draw adverse inferences from their silence.” The note in Code C 6.6(b) says the restriction applies in those cases “because the detainee is not allowed an opportunity to consult a solicitor”, and Annex C paragraph 1 confirms it will “apply when a detainee who has asked for legal advice is interviewed before speaking to a solicitor as in section 6, paragraph 6.6(a) or (b)”.

The law behind this is section 34(2A) of the Criminal Justice and Public Order Act 1994: where the accused was at an authorised place of detention, the inference provisions “do not apply if he had not been allowed an opportunity to consult a solicitor prior to being questioned, charged or informed”. The Crown Court Compendium (Part I, 17-1 para 4) puts it as: “no inference may be drawn unless D was given the opportunity to consult a solicitor before being questioned or charged.”

In that situation the caution changes. Code C Annex C paragraph 2 gives it as: “You do not have to say anything, but anything you do say may be given in evidence.”

The restriction does not apply under 6.6(c) or (d). The Code’s Notes say it “will not apply because the detainee is allowed an opportunity to consult the duty solicitor” (6.6(c)) or “a solicitor if they wish” (6.6(d)).

Questions before you reach the police station

Code C 11.1 says that following a decision to arrest a suspect, “they must not be interviewed about the relevant offence except at a police station or other authorised place of detention” unless the delay would be likely to cause interference with or harm to evidence, interference with or physical harm to other people, “serious loss of, or damage to, property”, the alerting of other suspects, or hinder the recovery of property. It adds: “Interviewing in any of these circumstances shall cease once the relevant risk has been averted or the necessary questions have been put in order to attempt to avert that risk.”

Voluntary interviews

If you attend by arrangement and are not under arrest, Code C 3.21 says you “may leave at will unless arrested.” Before the interview, Code C 3.21A(b) requires the interviewer to explain “that they may obtain free and independent legal advice if they want it, and that this includes the right to speak with a solicitor on the telephone and to have the solicitor present during the interview”.

If you ask for advice, the police must secure it before the interview and explain “that the interview will be delayed until they have received the advice unless, in accordance with paragraph 6.6(c) (Nominated solicitor not available and duty solicitor declined) or paragraph 6.6(d) (Change of mind), an officer of the rank of inspector or above agrees to the interview proceeding”. GOV.UK says the right to free legal advice applies “if you’re questioned at a police station”.

Because you are free to leave and get advice, the silence restriction above does not apply to you. Code C Note 10C says it “does not apply to a person who has not been detained and who therefore cannot be prevented from seeking legal advice if they want”.

The police must not talk you out of it

Code C 6.4 says: “No police officer should, at any time, do or say anything with the intention of dissuading any person who is entitled to legal advice in accordance with this Code, whether or not they have been arrested and are detained, from obtaining legal advice.” Code C Note 6ZA says that, except to answer a direct question, no officer or staff member may suggest that your time in detention or the interview “might be reduced” if you do not ask for legal advice, or if you change your mind and agree to be interviewed without waiting.

The Notice of Rights and Entitlements says: “Asking to speak to a solicitor does not make it look like you have done anything wrong.”

Telephone advice and private consultation

For some less serious matters, free advice is given by telephone from CDS Direct. The Notice says this applies “unless limited exceptions apply when a solicitor should come to the police station”, and the first exception it lists is: “the police want to ask you questions about an offence or carry out an eye witness identification procedure.” GOV.UK says: “You may be offered legal advice over the phone instead of a duty solicitor if you’re suspected of having committed a less serious offence, such as being disorderly.”

Your consultation must be private. Code C Note 6J says: “This right to consult or communicate in private is fundamental.”

What your solicitor does in the interview

Code C Note 6D says: “The solicitor’s only role in the police station is to protect and advance the legal rights of their client.” The solicitor “may intervene in order to seek clarification, challenge an improper question to their client or the manner in which it is put, advise their client not to reply to particular questions, or if they wish to give their client further legal advice.”

A solicitor can be removed only in narrow circumstances. Code C 6.9 says they “may only be required to leave the interview if their conduct is such that the interviewer is unable properly to put questions to the suspect.” Under 6.10, if the officer consulted decides the interview should not continue with that solicitor, “the suspect will be given the opportunity to consult another solicitor before the interview continues”.

If a solicitor arrives to see you, Code C 6.15 says that, “unless Annex B applies”, you must be told and “asked if they would like to see the solicitor”, and “This applies even if the detainee has declined legal advice”.

Under 18 or vulnerable

Code C 6.5A says that if a juvenile or vulnerable person wants legal advice, “the appropriate action should be taken and should not be delayed until the appropriate adult arrives.” If the person does not want advice, “the appropriate adult has the right to ask for a solicitor to attend if this would be in the best interests of the person”, though the person “cannot be forced to see the solicitor if they are adamant that they do not wish to do so.” GOV.UK says: “Your appropriate adult can arrange for you to get legal advice even if you do not want it.”

If the rules are broken

A breach does not automatically make an interview inadmissible. Under PACE s.67(11), if a provision of a Code appears relevant to a question in the proceedings, “it shall be taken into account in determining that question.” Under PACE s.78(1), the court “may refuse to allow evidence” if, having regard to all the circumstances, “the admission of the evidence would have such an adverse effect on the fairness of the proceedings that the court ought not to admit it.” That is a decision for the court in each case.

What to do in practice (practice note, not law)

• Tell the custody officer clearly that you want a solicitor, either your own or the duty solicitor.
• If an officer says the interview will start without your solicitor, ask which paragraph of Code C 6.6 is being relied on and who authorised it. Under 6.6(a) and (b) that must be a superintendent or above; under 6.6(c) and (d), an inspector or above.
• Do not sign anything saying you no longer want a solicitor unless that is truly what you want. Under 6.6(d) that signature is what allows the interview to go ahead.
• You can ask for legal advice again at any time, including during the interview.

Common misunderstandings

Frequently asked questions