Police stations around the country have banned solicitors from using mobile phones and laptops in custody areas, the Gazette has learned.


Over recent weeks the Metropolitan Police and forces including Essex and Dorset have imposed a ban.



Lawyers said the restrictions are at odds with government demands for defence solicitors to improve their efficiency.



Ian Kelcey, chairman of the Law Society's criminal law committee, said Dorset Police had been persuaded to lift its blanket ban, and solicitors were in talks with Essex Police and the Association of Chief Police Officers.



John Vickers, senior partner at Paul Robinson in Essex, said: 'We are effectively being held incommunicado. With the Defence Solicitor Call Centre now handling all requests for police station advice, we need to be able to respond to calls or risk losing work.'



He said the police justified their position by saying it was to protect solicitors, but there was also the 'offensive' suggestion that 'we might attempt to pervert the course of justice by allowing the client to make contact with the outside world'.



Catherine Baksi