E8
RULES AND DIRECTIONS FOR THE QUESTIONING OF
SUSPECTS AND THE TAKING OF STATEMENTS
- (f) If the person who has made a statement refuses to read it or to write the above mentioned Certificate at the end of it or to sign it, the senior police officer present shall record on the statement itself, and in the presence of the person making it, what has happened. If the person making the statement cannot read, or refuses to read it, the officer who has taken it down shall read it over to him and ask him whether he would like to correct, alter or add anything to what has been recorded and to put his signature or make his mark at the end. The police officer shall then certify on the statement itself what he has done.
Interview Records
V. The questioning of suspects shall be recorded in the following manner:—
- (a) Accurate records must be made of each interview with a person suspected of an offence.
- (b) If an interview with a suspect takes place in a police station, or other premises providing reasonable privacy and facilities for such interview, a contemporaneous written record of the interview must be made. The only exception to this rule will be where equipment is available to record the interview by mechanical means.
- (c) Where a contemporaneous written record of an interview has been made, it must immediately after completion be read over to the suspect, and he should be given the opportunity to read it. The suspect must also be given an opportunity to make any corrections, alterations or additions he wishes to the record, and afterwards he should be invited to write and sign the following Certificate at the end of the record:—
- I, . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . have read the above record of interview, consisting of . . . . . . . . . . pages. It is an accurate record of questions asked, and answers I provided.
(Signed).
If the suspect cannot read, or refuses to read the record, or to write and sign the certificate, the senior officer present shall record within the record of interview, and in the presence of the suspect, what has happened. Nothing recorded in a record of interview shall be obliterated by either the interviewing officer or the suspect. The record must accurately reflect the total of what occurred during the interview.
