The Department of Justice in Northern Ireland has made the Police and Criminal Evidence (Northern Ireland) Order 1989 (Codes of Practice) Order 2026, with commencement set for 1 July 2026. As set out in the statutory rule published on legislation.gov.uk, the measure brings revised codes under the 1989 police and criminal evidence framework into force and starts a new Code I linked to detention under the National Security Act 2023. The Explanatory Note states that the revised texts will supersede the existing corresponding codes. In practical terms, the procedural rules governing a wide range of police activity in Northern Ireland will change on a single date, from stop and search through to custody and recorded interviews.
According to the Order, the Department prepared and published draft codes under Articles 60, 60A, 65 and 66(6) of the Police and Criminal Evidence (Northern Ireland) Order 1989, considered representations made through the statutory process, and then laid draft versions before the Northern Ireland Assembly. The instrument states that the draft codes were laid on 8 June 2026 and that the Order itself was made on 3 June 2026. The final step was taken under Article 66(4), which gives the Department power to bring the codes into operation. The Order was sealed by Naomi Long, Minister of Justice, confirming that the revised codes and the new Code I are due to apply from 1 July 2026.
The revised codes cover the main operational areas already familiar to practitioners. Code A governs the exercise of stop and search powers. Code B addresses searches of premises and seizure of property. Code C covers detention, treatment and questioning. Code D deals with identification procedures. Codes E and F govern the audio recording, and the visual recording with sound, of suspect interviews at police stations. Code G covers the statutory power of arrest. Taken together, those documents regulate routine police encounters, custody practice and interview procedure. They are also the reference point used by legal representatives, courts and oversight bodies when police compliance with statutory procedure is tested.
The national security and counter-terrorism provisions sit alongside those general codes but remain separate. Code H continues to apply to detention, treatment and questioning under section 41 of, and Schedule 8 to, the Terrorism Act 2000, and to detention and treatment under section 43B of that Act and Schedule 8. The notable addition is Code I. The Explanatory Note says this new code will govern the detention, treatment and questioning by police officers of persons held under section 27 of, and Schedule 6 to, the National Security Act 2023. The practical effect is that this detention regime will sit within its own published procedural code from 1 July 2026.
For police officers, custody staff and legal representatives, the immediate consequence is operational rather than symbolic. From 1 July 2026, custody practice, interview handling and procedural compliance will need to be checked against the revised codes approved by the Department, not the earlier versions they replace. For anyone reviewing police conduct, the commencement date is the key dividing line. Conduct before 1 July 2026 will fall to be considered under the codes then in force. Conduct on or after that date will be judged against the revised texts and, where relevant, the new Code I.
The Order itself does not reproduce the full wording of each code. Instead, it brings into operation the draft codes that were prepared, published and laid before the Assembly, with the Department of Justice stating in the note that the revised codes will be available on its website. That means the legal instrument is only part of the picture. The commencement provisions are short, while the detailed safeguards and operational requirements sit in the codes themselves. Practitioners will therefore need to read the operative code texts alongside the Order.
There is also a constitutional point recorded in the footnote to the instrument. The functions originally exercised by the Secretary of State under Articles 60, 60A, 65 and 66 were transferred to the Department of Justice by the Northern Ireland Act 1998 (Devolution of Policing and Justice Functions) Order 2010. Taken together, the 2026 Order is a technical but important update to Northern Ireland's policing rules. From 1 July 2026, the standards governing stop and search, arrest, searches, custody, identification and recorded interviews will all sit under revised codes, with detention under the National Security Act 2023 brought within the published code structure through the new Code I.