My Brigade use twin taped machines
contemporaneous notes will be taken, we will not normally interview on site , fraut will dander (PACE code C, & Human Rights)
Have attended court for fire safety offences many times never had to refer to my contemporaneous notes,
your notes will produce the written statement with your photographic evidence
Yes we follow a similar policy. Cautioning on site is discouraged for several reasons.
The contemporaneous notes are taken as an accurate records of what you said and saw at the time of your visit and found an offence had been committed.
As an example if you write "The car was blue" in your contemporaneous notes but then say in your witness statement "The car was blue with a white stripe on the roof" you will find the defence barrister will pick up on it and will want to know where the white stripe has come from.
You might say you remembered the car has a white stripe but forgot to add into your notes but bearing in mind court cases tend to be held sometime after the offence took place you will be on a sticky wicket and the defence barrister could discredit you easily.
So your witness statement can only go on what you have written in your contemp notes, otherwise anyone could add anything they liked. Dont repeat don't try and add things from memory, or make guestimations.
