Commentary on Sections Powers Section 22: Arrest
62.This section allows a member of the armed forces to arrest and detain a person for up to four hours if he or she reasonably suspects they are committing, about to commit or have committed an offence. Premises where that person is or is reasonably suspected to be may be entered and searched for the purposes of an arrest.
63.The power to detain a person for up to four hours is intended to allow sufficient time for a PSNI officer to attend in order to re-arrest the person and charge them with an offence, if appropriate.
64.It is envisaged that members of the armed forces will be deployed increasingly rarely, so will not have recourse to these powers on a regular basis. They are not expected to know the law as intimately as a police constable, hence in exercising their powers of arrest they will not be required to provide detailed legal grounds for arrest. Subsection (2) provides that members of the armed forces comply with any laws requiring them to state grounds for arrest by saying that they are making the arrest as a member of Her Majesty’s Forces. There is an exception in subsection (5) for laws that only have effect by virtue of the Human Rights Act 1998. The effect of this is that the armed forces satisfy their legal obligations if they comply with subsection (2), except any overarching requirement under the Human Rights Act 1998.
65.A member of the armed forces can seize and detain for up to four hours anything he or she reasonably suspects is being, has been or is intended to be used in the commission of an offence under section 31 or 32 (offences related to powers of road closure and land seizure). This measure enables the retention of the articles to be used in the commission of those offences until a constable attends who will then decide whether to arrest and charge.