Policy paper

Crime (Overseas Production Orders) Bill: overarching documents

The bill will allow law enforcement agencies to apply for a UK court order to get stored electronic data directly from a company or person based outside the UK.

• From: Home Office
• Published: 28 June 2018
• Last updated: 5 September 2018 — See all updates

This was published under the 2016 to 2019 May Conservative government

Documents

Overarching factsheet

PDF, 154 KB, 4 pages

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Factsheet

PDF, 104 KB, 1 page

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Impact assessment

PDF, 265 KB, 13 pages

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Delegated powers memorandum

PDF, 289 KB, 8 pages

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Details

Increasingly, terrorists and criminals are using global communications services or applications to facilitate their criminal activities. This makes the stored electronic data generated by these services and applications a vital source of evidence which is increasingly important for the investigation and prosecution of criminal offences. The companies providing these services and applications, or processing the data generated from using them, are often located outside the UK. Enabling cross-border access to this information is a high priority for the UK government and our operational law enforcement and prosecution agencies.

The Crime (Overseas Production Orders) Bill will provide law enforcement agencies and prosecutors the power to apply for a UK court order to obtain stored electronic data directly from a company or person based outside the UK for the purposes of UK investigations and prosecutions of criminal offences. A court order can only be granted where there is an international co-operation agreement in place between the UK and the country the company or person is located in.

The main provisions set out:

• the scope and reach of an overseas production order (OPO) and who may apply for one
• the requirements which need to be met before a judge makes an OPO and what must be included in the application for an order
• the restrictions on serving an OPO, including the time period within which the data covered by the OPO must be supplied
• the additional safeguards and requirements for certain types of data
• the ways of serving an OPO

Documents relating to the Crime (Overseas Production Orders) Bill are available on the Parliament website.

Published 28 June 2018
Last updated 5 September 2018 + show all updates

1. 5 September 2018

   Added overarching factsheet.

2. 28 June 2018

   First published.