If electronic data is stored overseas, how can an investigator compel its disclosure in the UK? The Crime (Overseas Production Orders) Act 2019 now provides a new solution, as Andrew Smith explains
- Overseas Production Orders provide a new means of compelling the disclosure of electronic data stored overseas within the UK.
- They offer an alternative to the frequently used option of mutual legal assistance, the notorious slowness of which is plainly inadequate when investigating fast-moving conspiracies.
When ministers describe a draft Bill as ‘important but essentially boring’, one can safely assume that lawyers—not widely celebrated for their ability to distinguish the interesting from the boring—are the only people who sit up and take notice. So it is with the Crime (Overseas Production Orders) Act 2019, which received Royal Assent on 12 February 2019. To this lawyer at least, the Act is far from boring. It represents a dramatic step-change in cross-border criminal law enforcement.
The Act provides a new way of answering the following question: if electronic
