With the Magna Carta commemorations this year, which seem to resonate especially in the USA, it is shocking to discover that the UK Government still uses General Warrants or Writs of Assistance, which helped to start the American War of Independence e.g. Boston tea party etc.
How can a Writ of Assistance as used by Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs, ever have been proportionate
under the European Convention on Human Rights and the UK Human rights Act , when instead of expiring or having to be reviewd after a fixed time period,
e.g. a month or 6 months or a year, these are supposedly valid for the "reign of the monarch" plus another 6 months thereafter.
An indeterminate length of for an extremely privacy intrusive power is almost certain to be deemed illegal by the European Court of Human Rights or the UK Supreme Court.
There is no good investigative reason why such Writs of Assistance cannot be in line with other search or even intercept warrants
and have to be reviewed and renewed after fixed lengths of time e.g. 6 months.
Customs and Excise Management Act 1979 section 161 Power to search premises: writ of assistance.
http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1979/2/section/161
[F1161 Power to search premises: writ of assistance.
(1) The powers conferred by this section are exercisable by an officer having a writ of assistance if there are reasonable grounds to suspect that anything liable to forfeiture under the customs and excise Acts--
(a) is kept or concealed in any building or place, and
(b) is likely to be removed, destroyed or lost before a search warrant can be obtained and executed.
(2) The powers are--
(a) to enter the building or place at any time, whether by day or night, on any day, and search for, seize, and detain or remove any such thing, and
(b) so far as is necessary for the purpose of such entry, search, seizure, detention or removal, to break open any door, window or container and force and remove any other impediment or obstruction.
(3) An officer shall not exercise the power of entry conferred by this section by night unless accompanied by a constable.
(4) A writ of assistance shall continue in force during the reign in which it is issued and for six months thereafter.]
FOIA request:
HMRC Freedom of Information Team
Room 1C/23 100
Parliament Street
London SW1A 2BQE-mail: foi.request@hmrc.gsi.gov.uk
Saturday 6th June 2015
Dear Sirs
Under the Freedom of Information Act 2000, please disclose the
following information:-----------------------
1) How many "Writs of Assistance" has Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs (or Customs and Excise) obtained under the
Customs and Excise Management Act 1979 section 161
http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1979/2/section/161
or other equivalent legal powers in force prior to the Customs and Excise Management Act 1979, in the reign of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II. Ideally this figure should be broken down by annual totals since 1979
N.B. This is NOT a request for any sensitive details of any any ongoing investigations.
--------------------Please provide the requested information, ideally by publishing it
on your public world wide website, or alternatively by email.Ideally this should *not* be in the form of a "copy and paste"
locked Adobe .pdf file, or similar, attachment.In the unlikely event that this information is not already
available in a standard electronic format, then please explain the
reasons why, when you provide the information in another format.If you are proposing to make a charge for providing the information
requested, please provide full details in advance, together with an
explanation of any proposed charge.If you decide to withhold any of the information requested, you
should clearly explain why you have done so in your response, by
reference to the Freedom of Information Act 2000 legislation.If your decision to withhold is based upon an evaluation of the
Public Interest, then you should clearly explain which public
interests you have considered and why you have decided that the
public interest in maintaining the exception(s) outweighs the
public interest in releasing the information.I look forward to receiving the information requested as soon as
possible and in any event, within the statutory 20 working days
from receipt of this email i.e. no later than Monday 6th July 2015.Yours faithfully,
[name]
[address]
[tailored email address for this FOIA request]
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