Abstract

This chapter discusses Part II of the Police and Criminal Evidence Act (PACE) 1984, which gives power to issue search warrants both by magistrates and judges. It points out how PACE created special categories of material that are used to describe the type of items which can only be obtained by an application to a judge. It also considers an alternative to a search warrant, which provides a procedure for compelling a person, by notice, to provide access to material. The chapter highlights Section 15 of Part II that provides safeguards, common to both s 8 applications and Sch 1, para 12 applications, to the form of the application and the form of the warrant. It covers Section 16 that sets out the requirements and procedure that are common to both s 8 applications and Sch 1, para 12 applications for the execution of warrants.