Chapter Updates for Police Powers of Entry and Search of Premises, and Seizure of Evidence

The Serious Organised Crime and Police Act 2005 has made substantial changes to the law governing search warrants. The police may still use s.8 of PACE to obtain a search warrant, for instance. However, under the new provisions this applies where there are reasonable grounds to believe that an indictable offence has been committed, whereas previously this applied to a serious arrestable offence. These warrants may now authorise entry into premises on more than one occasion or even an unlimited number if these can be justified on application, and warrants must be executed within 3 months. “All premises” warrants may be applied for where specific premises cannot be identified. This applies to any premises occupied or controlled by the person specified in the application, although if some of the premises are known, they should be stated when applying for the warrant. Also, a search warrant may relate to one or more sets of premises under a “specific premises warrant.” Where it is considered necessary to effect more than one entry, an inspector or above must authorise such action in writing beforehand. In the case of an ‘all premises’ warrant, the same rule applies where the particular premises are not named in the warrant. It should be noted that when a designated civilian investigating officer is involved in the entry and search of premises, that person may be authorised by an inspector or above not to wear a uniform, although this will depend on the circumstances of the particular police operation in question.

Due to the Serious Organised Crime and Police Act 2005 abolishing the concepts of arrestable and serious arrestable offences, this has redrawn the boundaries concerning ss.18 of PACE. The new criteria is that the offence in question now has to be indictable. This also applies to s.17(1)(b) of PACE in addition to a re-arrangement of s.17(1)(c)(iiia) [shown as (d) in page 112 of the book] and the insertion of a new (iiib) and (caa) by SOCAP. The latter has also amended s.32(2)(b) of PACE to restrict entry and search of premises without warrant to cases where the person has been arrested for an indictable offence. Schedule 1, para.2(a)(i) to PACE has also been amended so that reference to ‘a serious arrestable offence’ is replaced by ‘an indictable offence.’ (Also, Schedule 1 has been further amended so as to include several other classes of the judiciary in addition to circuit judges, namely judges of the High Court, recorders, and district judges).