Section 39: Power to enter and search premises
This section provides for prior judicial authorisation of powers to search premises for evidence of an offence under any of sections 4 to 9 and 26 of the Act ("premises" is defined in section 59 and includes both residential and commercial premises and vehicles or vessels). Applications for a search warrant must be made, in England and Wales and Northern Ireland, by a relevant enforcement officer, or, in Scotland, by a relevant enforcement officer or the procurator fiscal. Unlike the powers to stop and search persons, vehicles and vessels in sections 36 to 38, the power to apply for and execute search warrants extends to local authority officers as well as police or customs officers (see subsection (6)). As the definition of premises (see section 59(1)) includes vehicles, vessels and aircraft, it is open to a local authority to apply for a search warrant to search vehicles, vessels and aircraft whether or not they are being used as a dwelling.
	Subsection (1) enables a justice to issue a search warrant to a relevant enforcement officer that authorises that officer to enter premises specified in the warrant and search them for such evidence. A justice is defined in section 59 as a justice of the peace, sheriff and lay magistrate in England and Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland respectively. There is a two-stage test for the grant of a search warrant (subsections (4) and (5)). The first element of the test is that the justice must be satisfied that there are reasonable grounds to suspect that evidence of an offence under any of sections 4 to 9 and 26 of the Act is to be found on premises covered by the warrant. In determining whether the “reasonable grounds to suspect” test has been satisfied, the justice will apply the civil standard of proof, namely the balance of probabilities. The second element of the test is that any of the conditions in subsection (5) are met. The nature of those conditions are such that a relevant enforcement officer should, where possible, secure entry into premises or access to items on the premises with the co-operation of the owner or occupier and only seek a warrant where such co-operation is unlikely to be forthcoming or where the purpose of the search would be frustrated or seriously prejudiced if immediate entry to the premises could not be secured using the authority of a warrant.
	As with the provisions for search warrants in section 15 of PACE, a warrant issued under this section may be in relation to a single set of premises (a “specific-premises warrant”) or, in England and Wales and Northern Ireland only, an “all-premises warrant” where it is necessary to search all premises occupied or controlled by an individual, but it is not reasonably practical to specify all the premises at the time of applying for the warrant (see subsection (3)). An all-premises warrant will allow access to all premises occupied or controlled by that person, both those that are specified on the application, and those that are not; this allows for follow-up searches where evidence at one premises controlled by the named person identifies a second associated with that person.