A candidate messaged us last month after a mock. The question gave her a client arrested at 21:40 on suspicion of burglary, interviewed at 04:15, no solicitor present because the inspector had "not got round to it". Four answer options, all plausible. She picked the one about the confession being automatically inadmissible — and lost the mark. Her comment stuck with me: "I knew all the sections. I just didn't know which one the question was actually about."
That is Criminal Law and Practice in one sentence. It is not a memory subject. It is a subject where the facts of the vignette quietly tell you whether you are in the custody suite, in the magistrates' court on allocation, or in front of a Crown Court judge arguing exclusion. Get the stage wrong and every subsequent reasoning step is wasted.
Why Criminal Law and Practice Carries Weight in SQE1 FLK2
From the January 2027 sitting, FLK2 Session 2 groups Property Law and Practice, Solicitors Accounts, Criminal Liability and Criminal Law and Practice together. Practically, that means you will move from a completion statement to a mens rea point inside the same session, with no gear change offered to you. Candidates who revise criminal topics in a separate silo, weeks away from property, tend to feel that switch as friction on exam day.
There is a second reason the subject deserves respect. Criminal questions are unusually good at hiding ethics, which remains pervasive across both papers. A client who tells you he was elsewhere, then instructs you to run an alibi you know to be false; a duty solicitor asked to advise two co-suspects with conflicting accounts. Those are professional conduct questions wearing a criminal costume.
Before you reach for the law, name the stage: pre-charge, first hearing, case management, trial, or sentence. Half of the wrong answers in a criminal vignette are correct law applied at the wrong stage.
The Police Station: PACE 1984 Clocks and Adverse Inferences
Start with the detention clock. Under s.41 PACE 1984, the basic limit is 24 hours from the relevant time. A superintendent or above may extend to 36 hours under s.42 where the offence is indictable, further detention is necessary to secure or preserve evidence or obtain it by questioning, and the investigation is being conducted diligently and expeditiously. Beyond that you need a magistrates' warrant of further detention under ss.43–44, with an outer limit of 96 hours. Reviews run separately: the first no later than six hours after detention was authorised, then at intervals of no more than nine hours (s.40).
The right to legal advice under s.58 PACE is free and available at any time. Delay is possible only for an indictable offence, only on the authority of a superintendent, and only for a maximum of 36 hours — and the grounds are narrow, essentially interference with evidence or with other suspects, or hindering recovery of property. "We were busy" is not a ground. Code C supplies the surrounding detail: rest periods, appropriate adults for those under 18 or vulnerable, and the requirement for an interview record.
Silence is where marks are won. Sections 34, 36 and 37 of the Criminal Justice and Public Order Act 1994 permit inferences from failure to mention a fact later relied on, failure to account for objects, substances or marks, and failure to account for presence at a place. Two limits matter enormously in MCQs. No inference may be drawn where the suspect had not been allowed an opportunity to consult a solicitor. And by s.38(3), nobody may be convicted solely on an inference. Note also that legal advice to stay silent does not by itself block an inference — the question is whether the defendant's reliance on that advice was reasonable in the circumstances, the sort of factual assessment described in R v Argent [1997] 2 Cr App R 27.
So what happens to our candidate's confession? Not automatic inadmissibility. A breach of s.58 feeds into s.76 PACE (oppression, or things said or done likely to render a confession unreliable) and s.78 PACE (adverse effect on the fairness of proceedings). Under s.76 the prosecution must prove beyond reasonable doubt that the confession was not so obtained; s.78 is a discretion. That distinction — burden versus discretion — is a classic single-best-answer differentiator.
Bail Under the Bail Act 1976: Exceptions, Conditions, Appeals
Section 4 of the Bail Act 1976 creates a presumption in favour of bail. Examiners rarely ask you to state it; they ask you to displace it. For imprisonable either-way and indictable offences, Schedule 1 Part I allows refusal where there are substantial grounds for believing the defendant would fail to surrender, commit further offences on bail, or interfere with witnesses or otherwise obstruct justice. The statutory factors include the nature and seriousness of the offence, the defendant's character and antecedents, community ties, and record on previous grants of bail.
Two refinements repay attention. First, the restriction introduced by LASPO 2012: for an adult defendant not previously convicted in the proceedings, bail should generally not be refused on those grounds where there is no real prospect of a custodial sentence. Second, conditions under s.3(6) must be necessary for a specified purpose — residence, surety, curfew, non-contact. If the vignette asks for the "best" answer, a tailored condition usually beats outright refusal.
If bail is refused, the defence may make a full argument at the first two hearings; thereafter the court need not hear the same arguments unless there is a change in circumstances or a new argument of law or fact. An appeal lies to the Crown Court under s.16 Criminal Justice Act 2003. Know that route — it is a frequent distractor against judicial review, which is not the answer here.
From First Hearing to Trial: Allocation, Sending and Disclosure
Every criminal case begins in the magistrates' court. Summary-only offences stay there — common assault and battery under s.39 Criminal Justice Act 1988, and low-value criminal damage by virtue of s.22 Magistrates' Courts Act 1980. Indictable-only offences such as murder, robbery and s.18 GBH are sent forthwith to the Crown Court under s.51 Crime and Disorder Act 1998.
Either-way offences run through plea before venue (s.17A MCA 1980). Guilty plea indicated? The magistrates proceed to sentence, with power to commit for sentence if their powers are inadequate. Not guilty? Allocation under ss.19–20 follows: the court considers whether its sentencing powers are sufficient, applying the Allocation Guideline, and if it accepts jurisdiction the defendant may still elect Crown Court trial. One warning — the magistrates' maximum sentence for a single either-way offence has been altered more than once in recent years, so confirm the current figure against the latest specification rather than trusting an old revision note.
Disclosure under the Criminal Procedure and Investigations Act 1996 is thin on facts and heavy on marks. The prosecution's initial duty (s.3) covers unused material capable of undermining the prosecution case or assisting the defence. A defence statement is compulsory in the Crown Court (s.5) and voluntary in the magistrates' court (s.6), with required content set out in s.6A: the nature of the defence, matters of fact in dispute, points of law, and alibi particulars. The prosecution duty continues (s.7A), and the defence can apply for specific disclosure under s.8 — but only after serving a compliant defence statement.
Criminal Liability and Evidence: The Points That Decide Questions
On liability, work from the mental element outwards. Indirect intention follows R v Woollin [1999] 1 AC 82 — death or serious injury a virtual certainty, and the defendant appreciated that. Recklessness is subjective after R v G [2003] UKHL 50. For homicide, separate the partial defences under the Coroners and Justice Act 2009 — diminished responsibility (s.52, amending s.2 Homicide Act 1957) and loss of control (ss.54–55) — from constructive manslaughter, which needs an unlawful and dangerous act, and gross negligence manslaughter under R v Adomako [1995] 1 AC 171.
Property offences reward precision on definitions: theft under ss.1–6 Theft Act 1968, robbery under s.8 (force immediately before or at the time of stealing, and in order to steal), burglary under s.9 with its two distinct limbs, and fraud by false representation, failing to disclose or abuse of position under ss.2–4 Fraud Act 2006. Self-defence is governed by s.76 Criminal Justice and Immigration Act 2008: the belief in the need for force is judged on the facts as the defendant genuinely believed them, while the degree of force must be reasonable.
In evidence, three areas dominate. Bad character under ss.98–101 CJA 2003, where you must identify the gateway — propensity under s.101(1)(d) and s.103 being the usual candidate, with the fairness safeguard in s.101(3). Hearsay under ss.114–116, including unavailable witnesses and the preserved common law exceptions in s.118. And disputed visual identification, where a Code D procedure should have been held and the judge must give a Turnbull warning (R v Turnbull [1977] QB 224) on the weaknesses of identification evidence.
A Four-Step Drill You Can Start This Week
Knowledge alone does not move a score. Structured repetition does. Try this:
Build one timeline sheet. A single page running arrest → detention clock → interview → charge → first hearing → allocation or sending → case management → trial → sentence. Write the governing provision beside each box. Read it before every criminal practice set until you no longer need it.
Drill the "stage" question. For each MCQ you attempt, write the stage in two words before reading the options. This single habit removes most careless errors.
Keep a distractor log. Record why the wrong option was tempting — right law, wrong stage; right test, wrong burden; correct in the Crown Court, wrong in the magistrates'. Patterns appear within a fortnight.
Practise in mixed blocks. Given the 2027 session grouping, revise criminal alongside property and accounts, at roughly 1.8 minutes per question. Training the switch is as important as training the content.
If a criminal question mentions a solicitor's instructions, a co-defendant, or what the client "admitted to you", pause. You are probably being assessed on professional conduct, not on the offence.
How CELE SQE Can Help
We have taught SQE candidates since the very first sitting in 2021, and our Criminal Law and Practice materials are built around that stage-by-stage logic rather than around bullet lists. If you want full coverage of all 13 subjects, our SQE1 courses run at £3,720 (long-term), £2,750 (mid-term) and £1,750 (short-term), with a single FLK at half price and £150 off for early bird or within-three-months-of-exam bookings. If you simply need volume practice, the SQE1 Question Bank subscription is £575 per month, and textbooks are £950 for the full set or £570 for a single FLK. Questions about which route suits your timeline? WeChat SQE100, [email protected], or celebar.com — no pressure either way.
