Drug Trafficking Offences (Jersey) Law, 1988

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A decision made 3 March 2010 regarding: Drug Trafficking Offences (Jersey) Law, 1988 - amendment to Schedule 2.

Decision Reference: MD-HA-2010-0016
Decision Summary Title :	Amendment to Schedule 2 of the Drug Trafficking Offences (Jersey) Law, 1988		Date of Decision Summary:	01 March 2010
Decision Summary Author:	Director, Law Enforcement		Decision Summary: Public or Exempt? (State clauses from Code of Practice booklet)	Public
Type of Report: Oral or Written?	Written		Person Giving Oral Report:	N/A
Written Report Title :	Amendment to Schedule 2 of the Drug Trafficking Offences (Jersey) Law, 1988		Date of Written Report:	26 February 2010
Written Report Author:	Director, Law Enforcement		Written Report : Public or Exempt? (State clauses from Code of Practice booklet)	Public
Subject: Proposed amendment to Schedule 2 of the Drug Trafficking Offences (Jersey) Law, 1988 so as to allow an Assistant Director within the Customs and Immigration Service to apply for an order requesting financial information or an account monitoring order.
Decision(s): The Minister authorised the Director, Law Enforcement to liaise with the Law Draftsman and request an amendment to Schedule 2 of the Drug Trafficking Offences (Jersey) Law, 1988 which will allow an Assistant Director in the Customs and Immigration Service to apply for an order for either financial information or an account monitoring order under the Schedule.
Reason(s) for Decision: Having authority to be able to apply for either financial information or an account monitoring order under Schedule 2 of the Drug Trafficking Offences (Jersey) Law, 1988 may prove beneficial when running Customs operations. It is appropriate that an Assistant Director in the Customs and Immigration Service, who is an equivalent rank to a Police Chief Inspector, should have the authority to apply for such orders under the Law.
Resource Implications: None.
Action required: The Director, Law Enforcement to liaise with the Law Draftsman’s office and arrange for the relevant Articles of Schedule 2 of the Drug Trafficking Offences (Jersey) Law, 1988 to be amended to allow an Assistant Director in the Customs and Immigration Service to apply for an order requesting financial information or an account monitoring order.
Signature:		Position:
Date Signed:		Date of Decision (If different from Date Signed):

Drug Trafficking Offences (Jersey) Law, 1988 - amendment to Schedule 2

Customs and Immigration Service

Amendment to Schedule 2 of the Drug Trafficking Offences (Jersey) Law, 1988

Introduction

This paper recommends that the Minister authorises the Director, Law Enforcement to liaise with the Law Draftsman and arrange for an amendment to the relevant Articles in Schedule 2 of the Drug Trafficking Offences (Jersey) Law, 1988 so as to allow an Assistant Director in the Customs and Immigration Service to apply by order for customer financial information or account monitoring orders during the course of a Customs operation.

Background

Article 44A, paragraphs (1) and (2) of the Drug Trafficking Offences (Jersey) Law , 1988 relate to financial information and account monitoring orders and refers to Parts 1 and 2 of Schedule 2.

Article 2 of Part 1 of Schedule 2 relates to who may apply for an order under the schedule and states:

“An order under this Part of this Schedule may be made on the application of a police officer of at least the rank of chief inspector”.

Article 2 (2) of Part 2 of Schedule 2 relates to who may apply for information for an account monitoring order and states:

“The description of information specified in an application for an account monitoring order may be varied by the police officer who applied for the order or another police officer of at least the rank of chief inspector”.

There are specific references to customs officers in the interpretation section of the law as well as Articles 40AA and 40B. Unfortunately those references do not extend to giving an officer in the Customs and Immigration Service of an equivalent rank to a police inspector, the authority to apply for an order under Schedule 2.

During the course of a future Customs operation there may well be occasions when such financial information is extremely useful and particularly an account monitoring order. As such it would be helpful to have an officer within the Service of an equivalent rank to a chief inspector to be able to apply for such order.

In the Police Procedures and Criminal Evidence (Application to Customs and Excise) (Jersey) Order 2004 the equivalent of a Chief Inspector is an Assistant Director. It would be of assistance, therefore, if Schedule 2 of the Drug Trafficking Offences (Jersey) Law, 1988 could be amended to allow an Assistant Director in the Customs and Immigration Service to have the equivalent powers of a Police Chief Inspector. Advice received from the Law Draftsman has confirmed that this would be a simple process.

Recommendation

The Minister is recommended to authorise the Director, Law Enforcement to liaise with the Law Draftsman and request the amendment described above to Schedule 2 of the Drug Trafficking Offences (Jersey) Law, 1988.

Steven Le Marquand

Director, Law Enforcement

Customs and Immigration Service

26 February 2010