That would apply to drum brakes not disc, however it wouldn't engage the lever only activate the brakes shoes pulling the cables

Mind you, if the handbrake has been applied for any amount of time whilst the car's being driven, there'll be no need to remove the pads.

There won't be much left of them...

It seems to have come on all of a sudden, as previously / recently the car had been driving fine. At first I couldn't make out the nature of the problem (described to me via text messaging) and I thought that the handle had been pulled too severely or broken, but this isn't the case
Hopefully I can have a look on Wednesday or Thursday

Thanks for the advice so far...

Heater tube dropped down?
Presuming this is Miss T, who spoke to me on sat about it being pulled on too far?

Up to the same old tricks, Andy?

Firstly, I drove it the three miles back to my house without it creeping. I kept checking by trying to push it back in, but it didn't need to be. The journey that it 'broke' on is a five mile commute along similar roads. I managed to get it stuck on the first (and last!) time that I used it, on a hill at some traffic lights - I'd pulled it out too far
So, to answer your questions:

1. twelve! not jacked up, just trying to roll the car by hand
2. The lever seemed a bit 'loose' (side to side) and the 'elbow' on the engine side (though the pins are all there) and when pushing the lever back in it didn't seem to sit right for the last inch or so. I had a similar thing with the van which turned out to be the heater tube, as suggested by Andy for this case (above) I've taken the heater tube off for now, just to eliminate that, and also a feed wire for the stereo which had been threaded through/above the handbrake lever support bracket
3. everything looked OK - I had a neighbour operate the lever while I watched under the bonnet: things that should move did, things that shouldn't didn't - but I didn't really have a chance to put a spanner to it today. Will have a proper drive out tomorrow...

I think that it just needs to be checked that all is in place and then correctly adjusted

Twelve clicks!!

Twelve clicks is excessive Mark, isn't it? It should be more like four, max. When I bought mine two years ago, the handbrake was twelve or more and I managed to pull the lever out of its' ratchet on two occasions before getting it fixed, on the second occasion I had to drive it against the jammed on brake for a while until I could pull over and release the ratchet manually. One set of new pads and correct adjustment later it's been at four clicks for thousands of miles now.

Indeed! My friend will be pleased to know that they are not alone in this (assuming no other nasties are found when the job is done)

Twelve clicks is way too many. Mine works on three at the moment, and one with new pads and properly adjusted (not by me I hasten to add!).