Part 1: Proceeds of crime Disclosure orders Section 7: Disclosure orders: England, Wales and Northern Ireland
A disclosure order enables a law enforcement officer to issue a notice requiring any person who has relevant information to answer questions, provide information or documents in connection with, among other things, a confiscation investigation.
	Section 7 amends section 357, 358 and 362 of POCA to allow an "appropriate officer", on the authority of a "senior appropriate officer", to apply for disclosure orders in both confiscation and money laundering investigations. An appropriate officer is defined in section 378 and is an investigator such as a constable, officer of HMRC, an Immigration Officer, a NCA officer or an AFI. A senior appropriate officer is also defined in section 378 of POCA.
	Previously the application for a disclosure order for a confiscation investigation could be made only be a prosecutor. The amendment to section 357 removes that restriction. Amended section 358 also allows the making of a disclosure order if there are reasonable grounds to suspect that the person specified in the application has committed a money laundering offence.
	A statement made by a person in response to a requirement imposed under a disclosure order may not be used in evidence against that person in criminal proceedings. There are, however, exceptions to this privilege and these are set out in section 360(2) and (3) of POCA. A disclosure order does not oblige a person to answer any privileged question, provide any privileged information or produce any privileged document, nor does it oblige a person to produce excluded material.
	Section 7 also amends section 362 of POCA to clarify that an appropriate officer applying to for vary or discharge a disclosure order need not be the same officer who applied for the order.