Blog
Lasting Powers of Attorney: recent key developments
Lucy Bluck
28 February 2019
New powers to gather electronic evidence from overseas agreed
The Crime (Overseas Production Orders) Act 2019 marks a major departure in the current mutual legal assistance regime in relation to gathering electronic evidence from overseas. Receiving Royal Assent on the 12 February 2019, the act gives powers to law enforcement to apply for an Overseas Production Order (OPO) to obtain electronic data directly from service providers based outside the UK for the purposes of criminal investigations and prosecutions for serious crime.
21 February 2019
Lie detection tests for convicted domestic abuse offenders is a costly distraction
One of the more striking features of the government’s draft domestic abuse bill, which was published 21 January, was the proposed extension of the ‘polygraph condition’ to convicted offenders’ licences. In this blog, Matthew Hardcastle questions the inclusion of polygraph testing in the government’s recent draft domestic abuse bill.
25 January 2019
No deal Brexit and financial crime: proposed regulations published
The next in this series of our “no deal Brexit” blogs looks at the implications for measures tackling proceeds of crime. As politicians continue to wrangle over the future, one of the latest technical regulations designed to prepare for a no deal Brexit has been published – that which relates to policing and criminal justice - The Law Enforcement and Security (Amendment) (EU exit) Regulations 2019 (the Regulations).
23 January 2019
No deal Brexit: what this would mean for extradition?
Given the current parliamentary turmoil, Whitehall is proceeding at pace with a multitude of regulations, guidance and policies to prepare for a “no deal” Brexit – the consequence of leaving the EU on 29 March 2019 with no transitional arrangement in place or the prospect of a future relationship secured. A large number of statutory instruments are being prepared that introduce regulations to “address failures of retained EU law to operate effectively or address other legislative deficiencies arising from the UK’s withdrawal from the EU." This will provide “legal and operational certainty” – so we are told.
16 January 2019
Sex for rent / rent for sex - revised CPS guidance
The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) has recently published revised guidance on “Prostitution and Exploitation of Prostitution Offences.” This guidance follows a series of reports in late-2018 of landlords offering rooms for no financial cost, so long as the tenant agreed to engage in sexual activity.
