When someone is arrested on suspicion of drink driving or drug driving, what happens inside a police station can make or break a prosecution, or a defence. One crucial area that often gets overlooked is the issue of medical fitness in police custody. Was the detainee medically well enough to be processed, questioned, or tested? And was the person making that decision properly trained to assess this?
These aren’t academic questions; they’re central to whether evidence such as a breath, blood or urine sample is lawfully obtained and reliable.
The Two Strands of Medical Care in Custody
Medical care in police custody falls under two key categories:
- Clinical/Therapeutic Care – Treatment of the detainee as a patient.
- Forensic Medicine – Assessment carried out for legal or evidential purposes.
The distinction is vital. Someone may be able to provide medical care as a patient (e.g., wound dressing, checking blood pressure), but not be trained or authorised to make forensic decisions, such as declaring a person fit for interview, fit to be detained, or fit to provide a specimen.
Who is Qualified?
Under the Police and Criminal Evidence Act 1984 (PACE) Code C 9A, a healthcare professional (HCP) must be clinically qualified and working within the scope of their statutory regulatory body. But not every HCP is automatically suitable for forensic roles in custody.
According to the Faculty of Forensic and Legal Medicine (FFLM):
- HCPs in police custody may be doctors, nurses, or paramedics.
- Those undertaking forensic roles, such as assessing fitness to be interviewed, require specific forensic training.
- Civilian paramedics are not trained by default in forensic medicine. Their typical scope includes urgent or emergency clinical care; not legal assessments.
This means that a paramedic ticking a box to say someone is “fit to be detained” is often only confirming the detainee does not need emergency hospital care. That is not a forensic opinion.
Training Matters
The FFLM provides a dedicated five-day forensic training course for doctors, nurses, and paramedics who wish to carry out forensic roles in custody. This includes:
- Legal and ethical training under PACE
- Assessment of fitness to interview, charge, or detain
- Substance misuse and traffic medicine
- Death in custody procedures
- Courtroom presentation skills
Only those who have undertaken this training and are acting in that forensic role at the relevant time are qualified to make forensic determinations.
Even the British Medical Association (BMA) agrees: additional forensic training is mandatory for healthcare professionals working in police stations.
What Hospital Staff Can’t Do
Many cases involve a trip to A&E where clinical staff declare someone fit for discharge. But as stated by the Royal College of Emergency Medicine (2016):
“It is not the role of hospital staff to act as surrogate forensic medical examiners.”
This is a red flag we see often. Clinical clearance is not the same as a forensic assessment.
Why Medical Fitness in Custody Matters in Drink Driving and Drug Driving Defences
If a detainee is unwell; physically or mentally, it may affect the lawfulness or reliability of:
- Evidential breath tests
- Blood or urine specimens
- Police interviews or admissions
If the assessment of “fitness” was made by an unqualified or clinically-only practitioner, this could undermine the prosecution’s case. Worse still, if proper assessment was not done at all, it may be a breach of PACE and Article 6 (right to a fair trial).
At Geoffrey Miller Solicitors, we have successfully challenged prosecutions on this basis, especially where symptoms such as vomiting, intoxication, or injury were dismissed or misunderstood by non-forensically trained HCPs.
Final Thought
The simple truth is: not every medic in custody is qualified to carry out forensic assessments. And in drink driving and drug driving cases, those assessments matter enormously.
If you’ve been arrested for drink driving and believe your medical condition was mishandled, or that your condition affected the validity of a test, you may have a defence.
Contact us for expert legal advice from a team that understands how to unpick the fine detail of custody procedures and use them to your advantage.
Call Us Now Free on 0800 1389 123
Call Geoffrey Miller Solicitors 24 hours 7 days a week
Geoffrey Miller Solicitors are specialists defending drivers nationwide for all types of driving offences. Call our team of expert driving offence solicitors for some free initial advice.
You can also book an appointment with Jeanette Miller a.k.a. Miss Justice using our online booking system. If Jeanette is unavailable for your preferred date and time you can book an appointment with a member of our legal team. Please have as much information about your enquiry before the call e.g. Date of Hearing, Paperwork etc.
Add comment