Explanatory note

These Regulations amend the Special Constables Regulations 1965 (“the 1965 Regulations”).

Regulation 3 amends regulation 1B of the 1965 Regulations in order to enable Chief Officers to require DNA samples to be taken from special constables, and not just from candidates for appointment as was the case before these Regulations came into force.

The samples are to be used for elimination purposes – in other words, for the purposes of establishing that a sample recovered from a crime scene does not originate from a special constable dealing with the crime. This includes checking DNA profiles recovered from crime scene samples against the profiles of individual special constables, and also wholesale checking of the database of special constables’ profiles against the National DNA Database.

Individual samples will be destroyed 12 months after the relevant special constable ceases to be appointed as a special constable for a police area, except where they are appointed as a special constable in another police area, or where they become a member of a police force for that area or another police area.

Regulation 4 amends regulation 4 of the 1965 Regulations to permit local policing bodies to approve the matters in respect of which special constables may be paid allowances, and to permit the local policing body for an area to decide the amount of those allowances and what if any conditions to make the payment of the allowances subject to. Regulation 5A is amended to remove the requirement for the approval of the Secretary of State before payments may be made by local policing bodies to special constables, and consequential amendments are made to paragraphs (2) and (3) of that regulation.

Regulation 5 amends regulation 5A of the 1965 Regulations with the effect that the approval of the Secretary of State is no longer required before local policing bodies may make payments to special constables.

Regulation 6 provides transitional provision with the effect that any approvals by the Secretary of State, under regulation 4 of the 1965 Regulations, in force immediately before these Regulations come into force shall be treated as having been given by the local policing body for every police area immediately after these Regulations come into force. A local policing body for a police area may amend or withdraw that approval at any time after the coming into force of these Regulations.