The Officer’s Contemporaneous Notes & Notebooks: practical tips for stronger regulatory investigations
Regulatory investigations are often built around inspections, photographs, notices, technical reports, professional evidence, expert evidence and witness statements. However, one of the most important sources of evidence is often created much earlier: the officer’s contemporaneous note.
Whether recorded in a bound notebook, a secure case-management system, an inspection application or a time stamped field record, the first reliable account of an event may later become central to the case. It can support the officer’s memory, explain decisions made during the investigation, identify lines of enquiry and help ensure that relevant material is retained and considered for disclosure.
The key point is this: a contemporaneous note is not merely administrative paperwork. It often forms an important part of the evidential foundation for a fair regulatory prosecution.
Contemporaneous Notes and Notebooks - the Law
'Contemporaneous note' is a practical investigative term rather than a phrase separately defined by statute. In this context, it means a record made at the time relevant information is obtained, or as soon as reasonably practicable afterwards.
It may record what an investigator saw, heard, smelt, measured, photographed, seized, said, did or decided during an inspection, site visit, interview, telephone call or other investigative activity.
The legal importance of making and retaining these records is supported by the Criminal Procedure and Investigations Act 1996 (CPIA) disclosure framework.
The legal importance of making and retaining these records is supported by the CPIA 1996 disclosure framework.
Section 23(1) of the CPIA requires a Code of Practice designed to secure:
