The Act Schedule 1: The Serious Organised Crime Agency Part 2: Investigations, prosecutions, proceedings and proceeds of crime Sections 60-63: Investigatory powers of DPP etc.; Offences to which this Chapter applies; Disclosure notices; Production of documents
163.These sections provide that the DPP, the Director of Revenue and Customs Prosecutions and the Lord Advocate (or a prosecutor with delegated authority) can issue a disclosure notice. The sections restrict disclosure notices and the power to enter and seize documents (section 66) to investigations into offences involving: drug trafficking, money laundering, directing terrorism, people trafficking, arms trafficking, counterfeiting, intellectual property theft, pimps and brothels, blackmail, terrorist funding and certain tax and excise fraud offences (section 61). Subsections (2) and (3) of section 61 exclude certain offences where amounts less than £5,000 are involved. Subsections (4) and (5) of the section confer on the Home Secretary and Scottish Ministers the power to amend this list of offences (or the £5,000 threshold) by order subject to the affirmative resolution procedure. The prosecutor will be able to issue a disclosure notice if there are reasonable grounds for believing that the recipient of the notice can provide information of substantial value to the investigation of any of these offences (section 62(1)). The disclosure notice would be a written notice signed by the prosecutor setting out the requirements on the recipient to answer questions, produce documents or otherwise provide information, as well as where, when and how these requirements should be met (section 62(3) and (4)). The notice can be given to its recipient by a police constable, designated member of staff of SOCA or officer of HM Revenue and Customs (section 62(2)), who will be able to take copies or extracts from the specified documents or require the recipient to explain the documents or where any unavailable documents are (section 63).