Advances in Psychiatric Treatment (2008) 14: 369-381. doi: 10.1192/apt.bp.107.004093
© 2008 The Royal College of Psychiatrists
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Keeping PACE: fitness to be interviewed by the police

Michael A. Ventress, Keith J. B. Rix and John H. Kent

Keith Rix is a consultant forensic psychiatrist at Cygnet Hospital, Wyke (The Grange, 92 Whitcliffe Road, Cleckheaton BD19 3DR, UK. Email: drrix{at}the-grange.org.uk), and a visiting consultant psychiatrist at Her Majesty’s Prison (HMP) Leeds. John Kent is a consultant forensic psychiatrist at Newton Lodge, the regional secure unit for West Yorkshire, and he is a visiting consultant psychiatrist at Her Majesty’s Prison & Young Offender Institution Wetherby. Drs Rix and Kent have given evidence on fitness to be interviewed and the reliability of police interviews. Michael Ventress is a consultant forensic psychiatrist at Guild Lodge, the secure unit serving Lancashire, and a visiting consultant psychiatrist at HMP Kirkham, and he has experience of the assessment of detainees in police custody.

The second half of the 20th century witnessed a number of serious miscarriages of justice that resulted from improper police interviewing of suspects and unreliable and false confessions. To prevent miscarriages of justice involving people with mental disorder or particular mental vulnerabilities, psychiatrists have a role in determining the fitness to be interviewed of persons suspected of criminal offences. In this article, the role of the psychiatrist in assessing fitness to be interviewed is set against the background of the latest revisions of the Codes of Practice of the Police and Criminal Evidence Act 1984 and relevant case law in England and Wales.