Part 9: Miscellaneous and General Chapter 1: Miscellaneous Section 163: Powers to seize etc invalid travel documents
This section forms part of the law of the United Kingdom.
	The section amends Schedule 8 to the Anti-social Behaviour, Crime and Policing Act 2014, which sets out powers to seize invalid passports and other invalid travel documents.
	Subsection (2) changes the heading of paragraph 3 of Schedule 8 to make it clear that it provides powers of search and seizure away from a port.
	Subsection (3) substitutes paragraph 3(1) of Schedule 8. New paragraph 3(1) changes the previous reference to a "constable" to an "examining officer", a wider term defined in paragraph 1 of Schedule 8, which covers immigration officers as well as police officers. This reflects the extension of the seizure power to foreign passports, which are likely to be encountered by immigration officers as well as by constables.
	New paragraph 3(1) also extends the existing seizure power from a British passport that has been cancelled on public interest grounds to an invalid travel document (whether or not British). The power will therefore cover identity cards issued by countries that use them, as well as passports. The effect of this is that an "examining officer", away from a port, will be able to:
	require a person to hand over travel documents for inspection;
	to search for travel documents and take possession of them;
	to inspect any travel document taken from the person and to retain it while its validity is checked; and
	to retain any document that the officer believes to be invalid.
	Subsection (4) repeals paragraph 3(2)(c), which requires the Home Secretary to authorise the exercise of the seizure power and so enable the police to act without delay. Any decision to cancel a British passport on public interest grounds would continue to require the Home Secretary’s agreement.
	Subsection (7) inserts new paragraph 3A into Schedule 8. This provides a constable (only) with a power to enter premises and search for an invalid travel document, to take possession of and inspect any travel document found and to retain any document that the constable believes to be invalid. This means that, although a constable and immigration officer would have power to require a person to hand over travel documents, to search for those documents and to retain any that they believe to be invalid, only a constable would have power to enter premises to do this.
	Subsection (8) extends the existing safeguards that cover travel documents seized either at port or away from a port to documents seized following the exercise of the new power to enter and search premises. Thus, documents retained for checking will need to be checked as soon as possible, a travel document that is in fact valid, or is invalid only because it has expired, must be returned to the bearer straight away and a document must be returned within seven days, unless it is established during that period that the document is invalid for a reason other than having expired.
	Subsection (8)(d), (e) and (f) provides (as is already the case for documents seized either at port or away from a port) that a document seized following a search of premises need not be returned where it is believed that it is intended to be used for purposes for which it is no longer valid, and that the duty to return is subject to any other provisions outside the Schedule that allow a document to be retained.
	Subsection (9) extends the existing criminal offence in paragraph 5(2) of Schedule 8 to cover a search of premises following exercise of the power of entry conferred by subsection (7). This means that it will be an offence, punishable by up to six months’ imprisonment or a fine, intentionally to obstruct, or to seek to frustrate, such a search or the power of entry.
	Subsection (10) extends the power of arrest vested in an immigration officer under paragraph 2 of Schedule 8 to the amended paragraph 3 of the same Schedule. This reflects the fact that the section extends the power of search, seizure and retention in paragraph 3 from a constable alone to an examining officer (constable or immigration officer).