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Section 64ZI: Sections 64ZB to 64ZH: supplementary provision

Police and Criminal Evidence Act 1984 · 1984 c. 60View on legislation.gov.uk

Part V: Questioning and Treatment of Persons by Police

Any reference in section 64ZB or sections 64ZD to 64ZH to a person being charged with an offence includes a reference to a person being informed that he will be reported for an offence.

For the purposes of those sections—

a person has no previous convictions if the person has not previously been convicted of a recordable offence, and
if the person has been previously convicted of a recordable offence, the conviction is exempt if it is in respect of a recordable offence other than a qualifying offence, committed when the person is aged under 18.

For the purposes of those sections, a person is to be treated as having been convicted of an offence if—

he has been given a caution in respect of the offence which, at the time of the caution, he has admitted, or
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

If a person is convicted of more than one offence arising out of a single course of action, those convictions are to be treated as a single conviction for the purpose of any provision of those sections relating to an exempt, first or subsequent conviction.

Subject to the completion of any speculative search that the responsible chief officer of police considers necessary or desirable, material falling within any of sections 64ZD to 64ZH must be destroyed immediately if it appears to the chief officer that—

the arrest was unlawful,
the taking of the fingerprints, impressions of footwear or DNA sample concerned was unlawful,
the arrest was based on mistaken identity, or
other circumstances relating to the arrest or the alleged offence mean that it is appropriate to destroy the material.

"Responsible chief officer of police" means the chief officer of police for the police area—

in which the samples, fingerprints or impressions of footwear were taken, or
in the case of a DNA profile, in which the sample from which the DNA profile was derived was taken.

About this text

This legislation text comes from legislation.gov.uk. Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. These source and reuse terms cover the legislation text, not Remedy's commentary.

Reuse reviewed 21 August 2026 under Open Government Licence v3.0.