It is the sort of rule change that can pass most people by, but it reaches straight into everyday policing. The Department of Justice has made a new Order bringing revised police codes of practice into force across Northern Ireland from 1 July 2026, covering stop and search, arrest, detention, questioning and interview procedures. The Order was sealed on 3 June by Justice Minister Naomi Long. On paper it is technical. In practice, it sets the working rules for what officers can do on the street, in homes and inside custody suites.

According to the legislation and its explanatory note, the revised codes sit under the Police and Criminal Evidence (Northern Ireland) Order 1989. The Department of Justice said it prepared and published draft codes, considered representations made under that legal framework and then laid the draft codes before the Northern Ireland Assembly on 8 June 2026. The key date for the public, police officers and legal teams is 1 July 2026. From that day, the revised codes will replace the corresponding existing codes of practice.

The changes cover the powers that most often shape direct contact between the police and the public. Code A deals with stop and search. Code B covers searches of premises and the seizure of property found on people or premises. Code G sets out the statutory power of arrest. That matters well beyond legal circles. These are the rules that come into play when somebody is stopped in a town centre, when officers search an address, or when an arrest is challenged later. They may read like dry guidance, but they have real weight when questions are asked about fairness, procedure and accountability.

Other parts of the package focus on what happens after a person is brought into police detention. Code C covers detention, treatment and questioning. Code D deals with identification. Code E and Code F govern the audio recording and the visual recording with sound of suspect interviews at police stations. Taken together, those codes set the standard for how evidence is gathered and how people in custody should be dealt with. For defence solicitors, families and rights groups, that is often where the argument starts: not in the headline case itself, but in whether the process was followed properly.

The Order also keeps specialist codes in place for the most sensitive detention settings. Code H applies to people held under section 41 of, and Schedule 8 to, the Terrorism Act 2000, as well as detention under section 43B and Schedule 8 to that Act. The new arrival is Code I. That code covers the detention, treatment and questioning of people held under section 27 of, and Schedule 6 to, the National Security Act 2023. In straight terms, Northern Ireland will now have a specific code of practice for how those cases are handled in police detention.

There is a wider constitutional point here too. The explanatory note records that functions once exercised by the Secretary of State under Articles 60, 60A, 65 and 66 were transferred to the Department of Justice in 2010 under devolution arrangements. This is Northern Ireland justice policy being carried through Northern Ireland institutions, not handed down as an afterthought from Westminster. The revised codes will be published on the Department of Justice website. Between now and 1 July, the people reading the small print most closely will be police officers, custody staff, solicitors and civil liberties campaigners, because these are the rules that shape what state power looks like when it meets an individual face to face.