Correct on the date of publication - 6 July 2026
Question:
When executing a search warrant under section 23 Misuse of Drugs Act 1971, is there any power to detain persons during the search of the premises?
Answer:
In the case of Director of Public Prosecutions v Meaden (2003) it was held that where the warrant provides for a search of the premises and persons therein, police officers may detain a person in one part of the premises whilst they search another part of them. In this case, the court held that the justices had been wrong to hold that there was no case to answer. Police officers who were executing a search warrant of a property were acting within the execution of their duty if they asked individuals within the property to go into and remain in certain rooms whilst they were searching other rooms. Further, they were entitled to prevent individuals from leaving the property altogether.
The subject matter of this question was also the central feature in the case of Hepburn v Chief Constable of Thames Valley Police (2002). When the police executed a search warrant under section 23 of the Misuse of Drugs Act 1971, Mr. Hepburn sought to leave the premises. He was prevented from doing so by an officer. In an ensuing struggle a second officer went to the first officer's assistance and struck Mr. Hepburn as he continued to leave the premises. Mr. Hepburn initiated civil action against the police for false imprisonment. The County Court allowed his claim for damages, a decision against which the Chief Constable appealed.
In dismissing the Chief Constable's appeal against the County Court decision, the Court of Appeal issued the reminder that an individual's freedom of person and movement was inviolable, and this fundamental freedom could only be interfered with where the law dictated that such freedom could be restricted.
There was no scope to argue, the court ruled, that implicit in a search warrant was the power to prevent people from leaving the premises in order that the search warrant might be executed. The Court of Appeal concluded that where an officer attempted to detain a person found on premises whilst a search warrant was being executed and the warrant did not include a power to stop and arrest, the officer had no defence to an action for assault and false imprisonment. The central issue, the Court of Appeal ruled, was that the power to detain and search arose only where conditions prescribed by law existed.
Section 23(3) of the Misuse of Drugs Act 1971 does not prescribe a power to detain a person found on the premises – only a power to search them – and in the case it was conceded on behalf of the Chief Constable that at the time Mr. Hepburn's departure from the premises was being prevented there were insufficient grounds to resort to the power of stop and search under section 23(2)(a) of the Act.
View the full Legal Q&A document here, with links to related and similar legal questions.
For quick and easy access in the future, click the pin icon from the top right of any document to save it to 'My Documents'.
