This document sets out the respective roles and responsibilities of the Home Secretary and the Director General of the National Crime Agency (NCA) and the principles that will govern the relationship between the Home Office and the NCA. It also sets out the ways in which the NCA will operate under the Crime and Courts Act 2013, covering accountability, management, operational and financial arrangements.
Organised Crime and Law Enforcement: A Network Perspective examines organised crime and law enforcement through the conceptual lens of networks. The book takes stock of the many ways in which network theories and concepts, including social network analysis, can apply to studying both organised crime and law enforcement responses to organised crime. It is the first attempt to bring these diverse network perspectives and distinct fields of research together. The book is organised into two parts. The first part uses network perspectives to advance our understanding of the interconnected social structure of organised criminal groups, to expose their strengths and vulnerabilities, and to illuminate factors that enable such groups to undertake complex criminal activities. The second part uses a network lens to examine the challenges that organised criminal groups present for a wide range of law enforcement agencies, and the utility of network theories and concepts in understanding and informing their responses to organised crime. Written in a clear and direct style, the book will appeal to scholars and practitioners of criminology, sociology, law enforcement, and all those interested in learning more about theories of organised crime and its relationship with law enforcement.
Retaining the position it has held since first publication, the fifth edition of this leading practitioner text on information law has been thoroughly re-worked to provide comprehensive coverage of the Data Protection Act 2018 and the GDPR. Information Rights has been cited by the Supreme Court, Court of Appeal and others, and is used by practitioners, judges and all those who practise in the field. The new edition maintains its style of succinct statements of principle, supported by case law, legislative provisions and statutory guidance. Reflecting its enlarged scope and to maintain easy referencing, the work has been arranged into two volumes. The first volume is a 1,250-page commentary, divided into six parts. The first part is an overview and introduction to overarching principles. The second part provides an authoritative treatment of the data protection regime. This covers all four forms of processing (general, applied, law enforcement and security services) under the GDPR and DPA 2018. Each obligation and each right is comprehensively treated, with reference to all known case-law, both domestic and EU, including those dealing with analogous provisions in the previous data protection regime. The third part provides a detailed treatment of the environmental information regime. This recognises the treaty provenance of the regime and its distinct requirements. The fourth part continues to provide the most thorough analysis available of the Freedom of Information Act and its Scottish counterpart. As with earlier editions, every tribunal and court decision has been reviewed and, where required, referenced. The fifth part considers other sources of information rights, including common law rights, local government rights and subject-specific statutory information access regimes (eg health records, court records, audit information etc). The final part deals with practice and procedure, examining appeal and regulatory processes, criminal sanctions and so forth. The second volume comprises extensive annotated statutory material, including the DPA 2018, the GDPR, FOIA, subordinate legislation, international conventions and statutory guidance. The law is stated as at 1st February 2020.
This is the fourth edition of what is the leading practitioner's text on freedom of information law. Providing in-depth legal analysis and practical guidance, it offers complete, authoritative coverage for anyone either making, handling or adjudicating upon requests for official information. The three years since the previous edition have seen numerous important decisions from the courts and tribunals in the area. These and earlier authorities supply the basis for clear statements of principle, which the work supports by reference to all relevant cases. The book is logically organised so that the practitioner can quickly locate the relevant text. It commences with an historical analysis that sets out the object of the legislation and its relationship with other aspects of public law. Full references to Hansard and other Parliamentary materials are provided. This is followed by a summary of the regime in five other jurisdictions, providing comparative jurisprudence which can assist in resolving undecided points. The potential of the Human Rights Act 1998 to support rights of access is dealt with in some detail, with reference to all ECHR cases. Next follows a series of chapters dealing with rights of access under other legislative regimes, covering information held by EU bodies, requests under the Data Protection Act and the Environmental Information Regulations, public records, as well as type-specific rights of access. These introduce the practitioner to useful rights of access that might otherwise be overlooked. They are arranged thematically to ensure ready identification of potentially relevant ones. The book then considers practical aspects of information requests: the persons who may make them; the bodies to whom they may be made; the time allowed for responding; the modes of response; fees and vexatious requests; the duty to advise and assist; the codes of practice; government guidance and its status; transferring of requests; third party consultation. The next 13 chapters, comprising over half the book, are devoted to exemptions. These start with two important chapters dealing with general exemption principles, including the notions of 'prejudice' and the 'public interest'. The arrangement of these chapters reflects the arrangement of the FOI Act, but the text is careful to include analogous references to the Environmental Information Regulations and the Data Protection Act 1998. With each chapter, the exemption is carefully analysed, starting with its Parliamentary history (giving full references to Hansard and other Parliamentary material) and the treatment given in the comparative jurisdictions. The analysis then turns to consider all court judgments and tribunal decisions dealing with the exemption. The principles are stated in the text, with footnotes giving all available references. Whether to prepare a case or to prepare a response to a request, these chapters allow the practitioner to get on top of the exemption rapidly and authoritatively. The book concludes with three chapters setting out the role of the Information Commissioner and the Tribunal, appeals and enforcement. The chapter on appeals allows the practitioner to be familiar with the processes followed in the tribunal, picking up on the jurisprudence as it has emerged in the last eight or so years. Appendices include: precedent requests for information; a step-by-step guide to responding to a request; comparative tables; and a table of the FOI Act's Parliamentary history. Finally, the book includes an annotated copy of the FOIA Act, the Data Protection Act 1998, the Environmental Information Regulations 2004, all subordinate legislation made under them, EU legislation, Tribunal rules and practice directions, and the Codes of Practice.ContributorsProf John Angel, former President of the Information TribunalRichard Clayton QC, 4-5 Gray's Inn SquareJoanne Clement, 11 KBWGerry Facena, Monkton ChambersEleanor Gray QC
This document sets out the respective roles and responsibilities of the Home Secretary and the Director General of the National Crime Agency (NCA) and the principles that will govern the relationship between the Home Office and the NCA. It also sets out the ways in which the NCA will operate under the Crime and Courts Act 2013, covering accountability, management, operational and financial arrangements.
Royal assent, 25th April 2013. An Act to establish and make provision about, the National Crime Agency; to abolish the Serious Organised Crime Agency and the National Policing Improvement Agency; to make provision about the judiciary and the structure, administration, proceedings and powers of courts and tribunals; to make provision about deferred prosecution agreements; to make provision about border control; to make provision about drugs and driving. Explanatory notes to the Act are available separately (ISBN 9780105622130)
The Committee expresses concern about the lack of clarity in the Bill introduced by the power to confer counter-terrorism functions on the National Crime Agency, since the need for this has not been demonstrated and the intended review of current counter-terrorism policing structures in England and Wales has not yet been carried out. The Committee is also concerned about provisions for the National Crime Agency to be exempt from freedom of information legislation. The Committee welcomes measures in the Bill to promote diversity in judicial appointments, although it believes the Bill does not go far enough in this respect. The Committee does not agree with the Bill's proposal to allow the Lord Chancellor to sit as a member of the selection commission for the appointment of the President of the Supreme Court and the Lord Chief Justice, in place of his current power of veto over the recommendation of that commission. The Bill confers on the Lord Chancellor a broad power to lift the current restrictions on filming and broadcasting of court proceedings. But However, despite the safeguards in the Bill and the Government's stated intention to proceed incrementally, the Committee is concerned that vulnerable victims and witnesses may be deterred from the judicial process and that certain defendants may not receive the protection their vulnerability demands. The Committee urges a much more cautious approach and recommends, before any extension of this power, that the Government conduct a more comprehensive public consultation, carry out a more detailed impact assessment, and conduct a review of the operation of this power after an elapse of years.
This book provides a normative analysis of the justifications and limits of asset confiscation as a crime control measure in a comparative perspective. More specifically, it deals with what in this context is referred to as extended appropriation, that is, confiscation in cases where the causal link between the property (the proceeds of crime) in question and the predicate offence(s) is less obvious. Particular focus is placed on extended criminal confiscation and civil recovery. These forms of confiscation give rise to a number of complex legal issues. The overarching purpose of the book is to provide an analysis of the nature of extended appropriation within the criminal justice system and to discuss a normative framework that may assist in assessing the legitimacy of such confiscation schemes. It also seeks to explore what a fair and reasonable balance between the interests of the state and those of the individual in this field might look like. The analysis starts from an acknowledgement not only of the need for having effective confiscation regimes in place, but also of the need for protecting the interests of the individual. It is hoped that the book will stimulate further discussion on the legitimacy of asset recovery as a crime control measure.
