Police Station Attendance Notes: The Complete UK Guide

Your attendance note is the only contemporaneous record of what happened during a police station visit. It protects the client, supports your billing, satisfies your professional obligations, and serves as the handover document for everyone who touches the file after you leave.

This guide covers everything you need to produce thorough, defensible police station attendance notes — whether you are handling a PACE custody interview, a voluntary attendance, or telephone advice.

What are police station attendance notes?

A police station attendance note is a structured written record created by the solicitor or accredited representative who attends a police station on behalf of a suspect. It captures the key facts, the advice given, the decisions made, and the outcomes — from instruction through to departure.

“Attendance note” is the standard term used by the Law Society, the Legal Aid Agency, and most firms. It covers three types of police station work:

• Custody attendances — the client is detained under PACE at a police station
• Voluntary attendances — the client attends by appointment for interview, not under arrest
• Telephone advice — initial advice given remotely, usually before a decision to attend in person

Each type follows the same core structure but varies in depth.

Why “attendance notes” rather than “custody notes”?

Practitioners sometimes say “custody notes” informally, but “attendance note” is the correct professional term. Your firm file, LAA claim narrative, and any court disclosure will refer to “attendance notes.” Using consistent terminology avoids confusion and strengthens the record.

Why police station attendance notes matter

Client defence

Your note may be the only evidence of what advice was given, when it was given, and what the client instructed. If the matter goes to trial, the note supports:

• Prepared statement context — proving the statement was based on considered legal advice
• Disclosure challenges — documenting what was and was not disclosed before interview
• Abuse of process arguments — recording PACE breaches, denied rights, or improper conduct
• Ambush defence disputes — showing the factual basis for the client's position existed before trial

Without a thorough attendance note, you rely on memory. Memory is not evidence.

LAA billing and audit

The Legal Aid Agency requires your file to support the claim. Your note must show what work was done, when, how long each stage took, and the nature and complexity of the matter.

The standard fixed fee for police station attendance is £320 (as of December 2025). Escape fee claims — where the recorded time exceeds three times the fixed fee value — require a detailed time breakdown as primary evidence. Since February 2026, claims are submitted through the Submit a Bulk Claim (SaBC) system.

A structured attendance note written at the time of the attendance is your first line of defence against LAA auditors. For the full guide, see LAA Attendance Notes Explained.

Professional accountability

The SRA expects solicitors to maintain proper records. For accredited representatives, the supervising firm needs to review what happened without relying on a phone call. A structured attendance note satisfies both requirements.

File handover

Police station work is often handled by one practitioner, then the file moves to another for court proceedings. Your attendance note is the handover document. If it is incomplete, the next fee earner starts at a disadvantage — and so does the client.

What every police station attendance note must include

A comprehensive guide to required sections is in our dedicated page: What Must Be Included in Attendance Notes. The essential sections are:

• Case identifiers — client name, DOB, custody record number, DSCC reference, station, offence, date
• Notification and arrival — time of instruction, arrival at station, booking in with custody officer
• Disclosure — what was disclosed, what was withheld, your assessment of sufficiency
• Consultation — advice given, instructions received, agreed interview strategy, vulnerabilities
• Interview — start/end times, summary of questions and responses, objections, representations
• Outcome — NFA, charge, bail, RUI; conditions; next steps
• Time summary — broken down by travel, waiting, consultation, interview, post-interview

Attendance notes by type

PACE custody attendance

The most detailed note. Covers all sections above plus detention review times, representations, s.56 and s.58 rights, appropriate adult involvement, and any extensions of detention.

Voluntary interview

The client is not detained, so custody-specific elements do not apply. However, all other sections remain relevant. Record that the client attended voluntarily, whether they were cautioned, and whether they were informed of the right to legal advice.

Telephone advice

The shortest form. Record the date, time, who called whom, the allegation, the advice given, whether attendance in person was recommended, and the outcome.

Structure and consistency

Use the same section order for every attendance. Supervisors, billing teams, and future fee earners should know exactly where to find each piece of information. The alternative — free-text narratives with inconsistent headings — creates gaps, slows handover, and causes problems at audit.

For a step-by-step guide to the writing process itself, see How to Write Attendance Notes.

Common mistakes

The errors that cause the most problems at audit, in court, or on file review are predictable and avoidable:

• Writing “advised client” without recording the substance of the advice
• Writing “disclosure given” without recording the content
• No time breakdown — a single total rather than travel, waiting, consultation, interview
• Missing DSCC reference or custody record number
• Writing up from memory hours later instead of contemporaneously
• Multiple inconsistent versions
• No outcome or next steps recorded

For a detailed analysis of each mistake, see Common Mistakes in Attendance Notes.

PACE requirements

PACE Code C does not prescribe a format for solicitors' notes, but it creates the factual framework your note must capture. Key provisions include Code C 3 (custody officer duties), 6.8 (right to consult privately), 11.1A (pre-interview disclosure), 12.8 (interview breaks), and 15 (detention reviews). See our PACE attendance note requirements guide.

Tools for writing attendance notes

Paper: Still used by some practitioners but declining. Handwritten notes are hard to read, easy to lose, and slow to type up.

Word templates: An improvement on paper. A good template prompts the right sections. The downsides: templates drift across teams, version control is poor, and transferring data to billing is manual. For a free template, see Attendance Note Template (UK).

Practice management systems: Systems like Lawsyst or Osprey include police station modules. Powerful for billing but typically cloud-dependent — problematic at stations with unreliable Wi-Fi.

Purpose-built software: CustodyNote is a Windows desktop application built specifically for police station attendance notes. It provides section-by-section structure for custody, voluntary, and telephone attendances — with offline support, AES-256 encryption, instant PDF export, and LAA-oriented billing fields. Free for 30 days, no credit card.

For an honest comparison of all approaches, see Digital vs Paper Attendance Notes.

See it in practice

• Police Station Notes Example — full annotated worked examples
• Attendance Note Template (UK) — free downloadable template
• What Must Be Included in Attendance Notes — the definitive checklist
• Police Station Interview Notes — best practice for the interview section

Summary

A good police station attendance note is structured, contemporaneous, complete, and internally consistent. It protects the client, supports your billing, satisfies your professional obligations, and survives scrutiny from a court, an LAA assessor, or a conduct review.

Start with a consistent structure. Record each section as the attendance progresses. Export or file the note before you leave the station.