Commentary on Sections Part 1: Serious Crime Prevention Orders.General Section 1: Serious crime prevention orders
14.This section gives the High Court the power to make a Serious Crime Prevention Order (“an order”). A Serious Crime Prevention Order is a new kind of civil injunctive order which is aimed at preventing serious crime. If a person breaches an order he commits a criminal offence. Subsection (1) sets out the test which the High Court in England and Wales must apply to determine whether such an order can be made. It provides that an order may be made if the Court is satisfied that a person has been involved in serious crime, whether that involvement was in England and Wales or elsewhere in the world, and where it has reasonable grounds to believe that the order would protect the public by preventing, restricting or disrupting involvement by the subject of the order in serious crime in England and Wales. Under the first part of the test in section 1(1)(a) a person can be involved in serious crime that has occurred in England and Wales or elsewhere. Under the second part of the test in section 1(1)(b) the public must be protected from the involvement of a person in serious crime in England and Wales only. Being ‘involved’ in serious crime in England and Wales or elsewhere is defined in sections 2 and 4. ‘Involvement’ in serious crime in England and Wales is defined in section 2(3). Subsection (2) provides for the same provision for Northern Ireland as is set out for England and Wales in subsection (1). Subsection (3) provides that the Court may impose such terms in the order, whether prohibitions, restrictions, requirements or other terms, as it considers appropriate so as to protect the public by preventing, restricting or disrupting the involvement of the subject of the order in serious crime. Subsection (4) provides that the powers in section 1 to make such an order are subject to the safeguards set out in sections 6 to 15 of the Act.
15.Subsection (5) provides that, for the purposes of Part 1 of the Act, the term “serious crime prevention order” means either an order under this section or an order under section 19. Section 19 makes provision for the Crown Court, rather than the High Court, to make an order following the conviction of the subject of the order for a serious offence. Subsection (6) provides that, in Part 1 of the Act, any reference to the subject of a serious crime prevention order is a reference to the person from whom the public is to be protected, namely the person who has been involved in serious crime and whose involvement in serious crime is to be prevented, restricted or disrupted.