Commentary on Sections Section 14: Power to destroy removed prohibited munitions
81.The effect of section 14 is to confer powers on the Secretary of State to authorise the destruction of prohibited munitions that have been seized and removed under section 13. The section stipulates the procedure which must be followed before destruction. The intention of this procedure is to give anyone with an interest in the prohibited munition an opportunity to persuade the Secretary of State that the prohibited munition should not be destroyed.
82.Subsection (1) states that this section applies when a prohibited munition has been removed under section 13(4)(a). The succeeding subsections then divide the period of twelve months following the removal of the prohibited munition into two six-month stages.
83.Subsection (2) addresses the first six months following the removal of the prohibited munition. Within this period the Secretary of State must serve a notice on both any persons who appear to have had the prohibited munition in their possession before its removal, and any persons who appear to have an interest which would be materially affected by its destruction. The use of the word “appears” means that the Secretary of State is not required to be certain that the persons concerned fall into one of these groups. This first period of six months is intended to allow time for investigation, or for new facts to come to light.
84.Subsection (3) stipulates what the notice must cover:
	it must describe the prohibited munition and where it is;
	it must say that the Secretary of State proposes to have it destroyed and why; and
	it must tell the recipient of the notice that they can object and how to do so and by when.
85.Subsections (4) and (5) provide the persons on whom a notice is served under this section with the right to object to the destruction of the prohibited munition: they must do so in writing to the Secretary of State by a specified date and state their reason.
86.Subsection (6) addresses the second six-month period. Within this period the Secretary of State can make a decision to destroy the prohibited munition and authorise a person to carry out this destruction.
87.Under subsection (7) the persons on whom a notice has been served must be allowed time to respond and the Secretary of State must consider any objections to the destruction of the prohibited munition. The effect of the wording in brackets in subsection (7)(b) is that the objections to be considered must include any made by a person on whom a notice has not been served.
88.Subsection (8) provides for the Secretary of State to recover “reasonable” costs incurred in removing and destroying the prohibited munition from the person who had possession of the prohibited munition immediately before its removal. This subsection does not enable costs to be recovered from any person who only had an interest in the prohibited munition but did not have it in their possession.
89.The combined effect of subsections (9) and (10) is that if, at the end of the second six-month period, the prohibited munition has not been authorised to be destroyed and a person or persons had possession of the prohibited munition immediately before its removal the prohibited munition must be returned to that person. A prohibited munition that was in the possession of more than one person could be returned to just one of them if the Secretary of State thinks it is appropriate.
90.Subsection (11) defines the times from when the first and second six-month periods are to run.