Commentary on Sections Section 11: Suspicious objects
61.The purpose of this section is to ensure that whilst information is being collected to establish the nature of any object suspected to be a prohibited munition, the person in possession of the suspected prohibited munition does not let it out of their possession. This is achieved by conferring a power on the Secretary of State to issue a notice requiring the person who has the suspected prohibited munition in his possession to retain the suspected prohibited munition until a specified date.
62.Subsection (1) describes the conditions under which this section will apply. The Secretary of State must have grounds to suspect that an object is a prohibited munition and it must also appear that the persons in possession of the object would not have a defence under section 5 or 6 (possession for destruction or permitted purposes), if charged with the offence of possession under subsection (1)(e) of section 2.
63.Subsection (2) states upon whom the Secretary of State may serve a notice. This is both the person who appears to have physical possession of the object, and any other person who the Secretary of State believes may be materially affected if the object were destroyed; for example, the owner of the object.
64.Subsection (3) stipulates what the notice must include. Subsection (4) provides that a person who has possession of the object when the notice is served must retain it for the period specified in the notice.
65.Subsection (5) makes provision for any person served with a notice to object by claiming that either the object is not a prohibited munition, or that the persons who have the object in their possession would have a defence under section 5 or 6 if charged with an offence of possession (possession for destruction or permitted purposes). The persons making the case may include not only the person who has the object in their possession, but any person who was served with a notice because they were understood to be materially affected: they may have relevant information to put forward about another person’s possession.