# Criminal Justice (Scotland) Act 2016, Section 51: Duty to consider child's wellbeing

Extent: S

(1) Subsection (2) applies when a constable is deciding whether to—
(a) arrest a child,
(b) hold a child in police custody,
(c) interview a child about an offence which the constable has reasonable grounds to suspect the child of committing, or
(d) charge a child with committing an offence.
(2) In taking the decision, the constable must treat the need to safeguard and promote the wellbeing of the child as a primary consideration.
(3) For the purposes of this section, a child is a person who is under 18 years of age.

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Source: https://www.legislation.gov.uk/asp/2016/1/section/51 (the official version)
Page: https://openlegislation.uk/criminal-justice-scotland-act-2016/section-51
Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Source: legislation.gov.uk, The National Archives.