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Sorry Mr. Lewis, your legal knowledge in this sphere is deficient. For an arrest to be lawful, not only must the police have reasonable grounds to suspect an offence, it must be necessary (itself defined by statute) to arrest the individual. That is where the suspect's age and general circumstances become so important.
Culturally, the police continue to arrest when it is expedient (for them) to do so. They act unlawfully as a matter of routine.
PACE s.24 (4) and (5).