Section 12: Meaning of "prohibited activity"
Sections 12 to 35 provide for four civil sanctions: a prohibition notice, premises notice, prohibition order and premises order. These civil powers afford law enforcement agencies an alternative route to criminal proceedings as a means of tackling the production, supply etc. of psychoactive substances. The use of these powers will enable law enforcement officers to take action swiftly to nip a problem in the bud or to adopt a more proportionate approach to low-level offending. It will be a matter for the relevant law enforcement agency to determine which approach to adopt in any given circumstances. Where there is evidence of a criminal offence under sections 4 to 8, there is no requirement to apply the civil sanctions in the first instance as a criminal prosecution may be the appropriate action to take. Equally, if a prohibition notice or premises notice has been served and is then breached, the relevant law enforcement agency might proceed to a criminal prosecution or pursue a prohibition order or premises order, as the case may be.
	This section defines the term "prohibited activity" for the purposes of the Act. The definition essentially covers the conduct elements of the offences in sections 4, 5 and 8, together with the secondary or inchoate offences of assisting and encouraging those offences. The definition does not include the act of possession with intent to supply a psychoactive substance given that, in practice, it would be difficult to demonstrate whether a respondent found to be still in possession of psychoactive substances had or had not stopped intending to supply them. Accordingly, it is sufficient that a prohibition notice or order would prohibit the supply of a psychoactive substance. The definition also does not include the act of possession of a psychoactive substance in a custodial institution on the grounds that the civil penalties are not appropriate in a custodial context.