# Crime and Policing Act 2026, Section 87: Section 85: reasons to suspect child sex offence may have been committed

Extent: E+W
Status: prospective

(1) For the purposes of section 85, a person (P) is given reason to suspect that a child sex offence may have been committed in each of the following cases (and no others).
(2) The first case is where P witnesses conduct constituting a child sex offence.
(3) The second case is where a child communicates to P something which would cause a reasonable person who engages in the same relevant activity as P to suspect that a child sex offence may have been committed.
(4) The third case is where a person (A) communicates to P something which would cause a reasonable person who engages in the same relevant activity as P to suspect that A may have committed a child sex offence.
(5) The fourth case is where—
(a) P sees an image or hears an audio recording, and
(b) a reasonable person who engages in the same relevant activity as P would suspect that the image shows, or the audio recording is of, conduct constituting a child sex offence.
(6) The fifth case is where P sees an image, and a reasonable person who engages in the same relevant activity as P would suspect that possession of the image may constitute a child sex offence.
(7) In this section “image” means a still or moving image, produced by any means.

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Source: https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2026/20/section/87 (the official version)
Page: https://openlegislation.uk/crime-and-policing-act-2026/section-87
Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Source: legislation.gov.uk, The National Archives.