Section 37: Power to enter and search vehicles
Subsections (1) and (2) confer powers to stop and search vehicles on a police or customs officer. The power is engaged where the officer has reasonable grounds to suspect that the vehicle contains evidence of an offence under any of sections 4 to 9 and 26 of the Act. The power does not apply where the vehicle is a dwelling (subsection (1)(b)); in such circumstances the provisions of section 39 would apply. A dwelling is not defined but is intended to be given its natural meaning; the exclusion would, for example, apply to a residential caravan. The power applies to vehicles whether or not a driver or other person is in attendance of the vehicle. Where it is impractical for a stopped vehicle to be searched in the place it has been stopped, the officer may require the vehicle to be moved to another place before conducting the search (subsection (3)). This provision would apply, for example, where the vehicle has been stopped on a busy road and it would be safer to conduct the search in another location.
	Subsection (4) places a duty on any person travelling in the vehicle or the registered keeper to facilitate the exercise of an officer's powers under this section, for example, the driver of the vehicle might be required to open a locked glove box or boot.
	These stop and search powers are exercisable in any place to which the officer has lawful access, this would enable a vehicle parked in a garage on premises that are the subject of a search warrant under section 39 to be searched (subsection (5)).
	The power of a constable in England and Wales to stop and search a vehicle under this section engages certain safeguards under Part 1 of PACE or, in Northern Ireland, Part II of PACE NI, including:
The constable need not search a detained vehicle if it subsequently appears to him or her: (i) that no search is required; or (ii) that a search is impracticable (section 2(1) of PACE and Article 4(1) of PACE NI).
Where the constable contemplates a search of an attended vehicle, he or she is under a duty to take reasonable steps before he or she commences the search to bring to the attention of the detained person (section 2(2) and (3) of PACE and Article 4(2) and (3) of PACE NI) —
If the officer is not in uniform, documentary evidence that he or she is a constable; and whether he or she is in uniform or not, the matters specified below:
the constable’s name and the name of the police station to which he or she is attached;
the object of the proposed search;
the constable’s grounds for proposing to make it; and
the right of the owner or person in charge of the vehicle to receive a record of any search conducted (section 3(8) of PACE and Article 5(8) of PACE NI).
A constable not in uniform has no power to stop a vehicle (section 2(9)(b) of PACE and Article 3(10)(b) of PACE NI).
A constable must make a record of the search in writing unless it is not practicable to do so. Where it is not practical to make a record at the time, the constable must do so as soon as practicable after the completion of the search (section 3(1) and (2) of PACE and Article 5(1) and (2) of PACE NI).
The provisions of the Code of Practice made under section 66 of PACE or Article 66 of PACE NI.