Statutory guidance - Concordat on children in custody

In 2014, the government established a working group on children in custody to address long-standing problems in the transfer of children from police custody to local authority accommodation, which is a requirement under the Police and Criminal Evidence Act 1984 and the Children Act 1989.

This group, which included representatives from across government, found that forces and local authorities often misunderstand their statutory obligations and very few have the effective local collaboration in place to ensure that these transfers happen as they should.

In order to improve understanding and help forces and local authorities build effective collaboration at a local level, the working group produced the concordat on children in custody, clearly setting out each party’s duties and providing a protocol for how transfers should work in practice.

Signatories to the concordat on children in custody