header-logo header-logo

Search warrants: you’re under review...

22 June 2018 / Michael Zander KC
Issue: 7798 / Categories: Features , Criminal
printer mail-detail
nlj_7798_zander

Michael Zander QC distils current Law Commission proposals for a major reform of search warrant law

The Law Commission this month published a wide-ranging, 341-page consultation paper on what needs to be done about search warrant law. The consultation will run until 5 September.

The project, undertaken at the request of the Home Office, was triggered by judicial comments that search warrant law was unnecessarily complex, liable to give rise to challenges and in need of reform. There had been some 50 judicial reviews concerning search warrants since 2010. The cost of a defective search warrant could be significant ‘with entire investigations collapsing and potentially millions incurred by public bodies on legal fees and damages’. (para.1.2)

The consultation paper (No.235, www.lawcom.gov.uk/project/search-warrants/) poses 63 questions. Thirty-six of these are in the form of what it calls ‘provisional proposals’:

  • The statutory safeguards in PACE, ss 15 and 16 should apply to all criminal investigation search warrants. (Q.1)
  • Anyone who applies for a criminal investigation search warrant should be bound by Code B
If you are not a subscriber, subscribe now to read this content
If you are already a subscriber sign in
...or Register for two weeks' free access to subscriber content

MOVERS & SHAKERS

DWF—19 appointments

DWF—19 appointments

Belfast team bolstered by three senior hires and 16 further appointments

Cadwalader—Andro Atlaga

Cadwalader—Andro Atlaga

Firm strengthens leveraged finance team with London partner hire

Knights—Ella Dodgson & Rebecca Laffan

Knights—Ella Dodgson & Rebecca Laffan

Double hire marks launch of family team in Leeds

NEWS
The Supreme Court issued a landmark judgment in July that overturned the convictions of Tom Hayes and Carlo Palombo, once poster boys of the Libor and Euribor scandal. In NLJ this week, Neil Swift of Peters & Peters considers what the ruling means for financial law enforcement
Bea Rossetto of the National Pro Bono Centre makes the case for ‘General Practice Pro Bono’—using core legal skills to deliver life-changing support, without the need for niche expertise—in this week's NLJ
In this week's NLJ, Steven Ball of Red Lion Chambers unpacks how advances in forensic science finally unmasked Ryland Headley, jailed in 2025 for the 1967 rape and murder of 75-year-old Louisa Dunne. Preserved swabs and palm prints lay dormant for decades until DNA-17 profiling produced a billion-to-one match
Small law firms want to embrace technology but feel lost in a maze of jargon, costs and compliance fears, writes Aisling O’Connell of the Solicitors Regulation Authority in this week's NLJ
Charlie Mercer and Astrid Gillam of Stewarts crunch the numbers on civil fraud claims in the English courts, in this week's NLJ. New data shows civil fraud claims rising steadily since 2014, with the King’s Bench Division overtaking the Commercial Court as the forum of choice for lower-value disputes
back-to-top-scroll