The Police and Criminal Evidence Act 1984 section 63B(10) states that in relation to a 'juvenile' (Under the age of 18[2]) (On 26 October 2015 amendments made to section 42 changed the age of "arrested juvenile" to "Under 18"[4]) an appropriate adult should be: Local authority Youth Offending Teams (YOTs) have a statutory duty to provide an appropriate adult for all children under the Crime and Disorder Act 1998 s.38(4)(a).
Depending on the local authority, this may be carried out by YOT staff, sessional workers, community volunteers or contracted out to a specialist charity or business.
Many schemes operate on a rostered basis across weekends and sometimes week day evenings to expand the service outside of the hours provided by social workers such the controversial role of Janet Leach in the investigations and trial of a serial child murderer.
[11] NAAN has produced National Standard for AAs which were approved by the Home Office and Department of Health and Social Care in 2011.
1778/2015) to commence changes to section 42 (duties of custody officer after charge: arrested juveniles) of the Criminal Justice and Courts Act 2015.
In 2013, the Home Secretary ordered the amendment of PACE Code C to extend the requirement for an AA to 17-year-olds when detained or questioned by police.
PACE 1984 s.63B (Testing for presence of Class A drugs) an AA must be present when police make the request, give a warning and information and take a sample "in the case of a person who has not attained the age of 17".