Arrestable offence is a legal term now obsolete in English law

English law

English law is the legal system of England and Wales, and is the basis of common law legal systems used in most Commonwealth countries and the United States except Louisiana...

 and the legal system of Northern Ireland

Northern Ireland

Northern Ireland is one of the four countries of the United Kingdom. Situated in the north-east of the island of Ireland, it shares a border with the Republic of Ireland to the south and west...

, but still used in the legal system of the Republic of Ireland

Republic of Ireland

Ireland , described as the Republic of Ireland , is a sovereign state in Europe occupying approximately five-sixths of the island of the same name. Its capital is Dublin. Ireland, which had a population of 4.58 million in 2011, is a constitutional republic governed as a parliamentary democracy,...

. The Criminal Law Act 1967

Criminal Law Act 1967

The Criminal Law Act 1967 is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. However, with some minor exceptions, it generally applies to only England and Wales. It made some major changes to English criminal law...

 introduced the category to replace the ancient term felony

Felony

A felony is a serious crime in the common law countries. The term originates from English common law where felonies were originally crimes which involved the confiscation of a convicted person's land and goods; other crimes were called misdemeanors...

. That act had been superseded by the Police and Criminal Evidence Act 1984

Police and Criminal Evidence Act 1984

The Police and Criminal Evidence Act 1984 is an Act of Parliament which instituted a legislative framework for the powers of police officers in England and Wales to combat crime, as well as providing codes of practice for the exercise of those powers. Part VI of PACE required the Home Secretary...

, which over the next two decades was itself significantly amended to increase police powers of arrest

Arrest

An arrest is the act of depriving a person of his or her liberty usually in relation to the purported investigation and prevention of crime and presenting into the criminal justice system or harm to oneself or others...

, relating in particular to entry, search following arrest and to custody. In England & Wales, the category "arrestable offence" ceased to exist with the advent on 1 January 2006 of the Serious Organised Crime and Police Act

Serious Organised Crime and Police Act 2005

The Serious Organized Crime and Police Act 2005 is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom aimed primarily at creating the Serious Organised Crime Agency, it also significantly extended and simplified the powers of arrest of a constable and introduced restrictions on protests in the...

. In Northern Ireland, it ceased to exist with the advent of the Police and Criminal Evidence (Amendment) (Northern Ireland) Order 2007. In the Republic of Ireland, the Criminal Law Act 1997 abolished the terms felony

Felony

A felony is a serious crime in the common law countries. The term originates from English common law where felonies were originally crimes which involved the confiscation of a convicted person's land and goods; other crimes were called misdemeanors...

 and misdemeanour and created the term "arrestable offence" in their place.

Definition

Section 24 of the Police and Criminal Evidence Act 1984

Police and Criminal Evidence Act 1984

The Police and Criminal Evidence Act 1984 is an Act of Parliament which instituted a legislative framework for the powers of police officers in England and Wales to combat crime, as well as providing codes of practice for the exercise of those powers. Part VI of PACE required the Home Secretary...

 defined an arrestable offence as:

• An offence for which the sentence is fixed by law; i.e. murder
  Murder
  Murder is the unlawful killing, with malice aforethought, of another human being, and generally this state of mind distinguishes murder from other forms of unlawful homicide...
  
  .
• Offences for which a person 18 years old or older, who had not previously been convicted, could be sentenced to a term of 5 years or more. This constituted the vast majority of offences, including theft
  Theft
  In common usage, theft is the illegal taking of another person's property without that person's permission or consent. The word is also used as an informal shorthand term for some crimes against property, such as burglary, embezzlement, larceny, looting, robbery, shoplifting and fraud...
  
  , serious assault
  Assault
  In law, assault is a crime causing a victim to fear violence. The term is often confused with battery, which involves physical contact. The specific meaning of assault varies between countries, but can refer to an act that causes another to apprehend immediate and personal violence, or in the more...
  
  , burglary
  Burglary
  Burglary is a crime, the essence of which is illicit entry into a building for the purposes of committing an offense. Usually that offense will be theft, but most jurisdictions specify others which fall within the ambit of burglary...
  
   and criminal damage
  Property damage
  Property damage is damage to or the destruction of public or private property, caused either by a person who is not its owner or by natural phenomena. Property damage caused by persons is generally categorized by its cause: neglect , and intentional damage...
  
  .
• Offences that were listed in Schedule 1A of the Act, which contained a long list of offences that do not attract a 5 year sentence but were considered to require the powers an 'Arrestable Offence' designation confers. Examples included possession of an offensive weapon
  Weapon
  A weapon, arm, or armament is a tool or instrument used with the aim of causing damage or harm to living beings or artificial structures or systems...
  
  , ticket touting
  Tout
  In British English, a tout is any person who solicits business or employment in a persistent and annoying manner...
  
   and driving whilst disqualified.

Other arrest powers

In addition to being able to arrest for an arrestable offence as defined above, section 25 provided further powers of arrest for "non-arrestable offences" in certain circumstances. This had no equivalent in the original 1967 legislation. They were as follows:

1. that the name of the relevant person is unknown to, and cannot be readily ascertained by, the constable,
2. that the constable has reasonable grounds for doubting whether a name furnished by the relevant person as his name is his real name,
3. that:
   1. the relevant person has failed to furnish a satisfactory address for service, or
   2. the constable has reasonable grounds for doubting whether an address furnished by the relevant person is a satisfactory address for service,
4. that the constable has reasonable grounds for believing that arrest is necessary to prevent the relevant person:
   1. causing physical injury to himself or any other person,
   2. suffering physical injury,
   3. causing loss of or damage to property,
   4. committing an offence against public decency (where members of the public going about their normal business cannot reasonably be expected to avoid the person to be arrested), or
   5. causing an unlawful obstruction of the highway,
5. that the constable has reasonable grounds for believing that arrest is necessary to protect a child or other vulnerable person from the relevant person.

Replacement

With the increasing number of newly created offences being included in Schedule 1A and thus being made arrestable, the Serious Organised Crime and Police Act 2005 abolished the category of arrestable offence, replacing the dual rules with a single set of criteria for all offences. The question now for police is whether it is "necessary" to arrest the relevant person, by reference to various broadly-drafted statutory criteria. The general arrest conditions are:

1. that:
   1. the name of the relevant person is unknown to, and cannot be readily ascertained by, the constable,
   2. the constable has reasonable grounds for doubting whether a name furnished by the relevant person as his name is his real name,
2. that:
   1. the relevant person has failed to furnish a satisfactory address for service, or
   2. the constable has reasonable grounds for doubting whether an address furnished by the relevant person is a satisfactory address for service,
3. that the constable has reasonable grounds for believing that arrest is necessary to prevent the relevant person:
   1. causing physical injury to himself or any other person,
   2. suffering physical injury,
   3. causing loss of or damage to property,
   4. committing an offence against public decency, or
   5. causing an unlawful obstruction of the highway,
4. that the constable has reasonable grounds for believing that arrest is necessary to protect a child or other vulnerable person from the relevant person.
5. that the constable has reasonable grounds for believing that arrest is necessary to allow the prompt and effective investigation of the offence or of the conduct of the person in question, or
6. that the constable has reasonable grounds for believing that arrest is necessary to prevent any prosecution for the offence from being hindered by the disappearance of the person in question.

Definition

Section 24 of the Police and Criminal Evidence (Northern Ireland) Order 1989 defined an arrestable offence as:

• An offence for which the sentence was fixed by law; i.e. murder
  Murder
  Murder is the unlawful killing, with malice aforethought, of another human being, and generally this state of mind distinguishes murder from other forms of unlawful homicide...
  
  .
• an offence for which a person of 21 years of age or over (not previously convicted) may be sentenced to imprisonment for a term of five years (or might be so sentenced but for the restrictions imposed by Article 46(4) of the Magistrates' Courts (Northern Ireland) Order 1981), and
• offences that were listed in that Article of the Order.

A constable may also have arrested for an offence if the conditions of Article 27 were satisfied.

Replacement

The powers to arrest under the 1987 Order were replaced by near-identical criteria as for England & Wales. A constable may arrest for any offence if the conditions below are satisfied:

1. to enable the name of the person in question to be ascertained (in the case where the constable does not know, and cannot readily ascertain, the person's name, or has reasonable grounds for doubting whether a name given by the person as his name is his real name);
2. correspondingly as regards the person's address,
3. to prevent the person in question:
   1. causing physical injury to himself or any other person,
   2. suffering physical injury,
   3. causing loss of or damage to property,
   4. committing an offence against public decency, or
   5. causing an unlawful obstruction on a road (within the meaning of the Road Traffic (Northern Ireland) Order 1995,
4. to protect a child or other vulnerable person from the person in question,
5. to allow the prompt and effective investigation of the offence or of the conduct of the person in question, or
6. to prevent any prosecution for the offence from being hindered by the disappearance of the person in question.

Definition

Section 2 of the Criminal Law Act, 1997 defines an arrestable offence as follows:

• “arrestable offence” means an offence for which a person of full capacity and not previously convicted may, under or by virtue of any enactment, be punished by imprisonment for a term of five years or by a more severe penalty and includes an attempt to commit any such offence