Rear brakes, quick question.

[minny]

So I'm starting to do the rear discs and brakes. In the Haynes manual, elsawin and online articles none of them say take the hand brake off, where it clearly does if you want to remove the caliper.

The question is simple, do you have to take the hand brake off?

Reason I ask is because they are quite rusty, so much so the front brake pad was fused on to the carrier. I could of course just try, but my car is parked on a very uneven surfice, so I do not want to take the hand brake off or start hammering trying to free rusted on calipers before checking.

Thanks.