Clause 21 - Considering the order
Crime (International Co-operation) Bill [Lords]
2:30 pm
Mr Bob Ainsworth (Parliamentary Under-Secretary, Home Office; Coventry North East, Labour)
Freezing orders will be executed by issuing a domestic search warrant or production order, and will be dealt with by the same courts that handle mutual legal assistance requests to seize evidence. The magistrates court is nominated to issue search warrants—unless the material requested is excluded or is special procedural material, in which case the Crown court is nominated to issue a production order. The terms ''special procedural material'' and ''excluded material'' have the same meanings as they do in the Police and Criminal Evidence Act 1984.
We intend to continue with the current practice when nominating a court under the Criminal Justice (International Co-operation) Act 1990, of nominating a court that is local to where the evidence is thought to be. Full training will be provided for magistrates, clerks of magistrates courts, the Crown Prosecution Service, the Crown court, Customs and the police. I do not think that it is appropriate that the use of the freezing orders and the ability to deal with them should be restricted to the High Court. It would be inappropriate and costly to use a court that was not local to the incident. Similar powers have been exercised under the old legislation, which was passed by previous Governments since 1990.