Member

The noble Lord’s Amendment 216B relates to the powers of shop security staff to arrest and detain persons suspected of shop theft under Section 24A of the Police and Criminal Evidence Act 1984. That already allows any person, including a security guard, to make a citizen’s arrest of anyone they have reasonable grounds to suspect has committed or is in the process of committing an indictable offence. The power of arrest is subject to certain necessary criteria but essentially, that power of arrest, in addition to Section 3 of the Criminal Law Act 1967, allows also for reasonable force in the prevention of crime or effecting or assisting a lawful arrest.