TNAG-1921-FCO40-2726-Mutual-legal-assistance-between-the-UK-and-Hong-Kong-1989 — Page 37

determining the organisation and functions of such an authority for the United Kingdom, it would be important to ensure that existing effective bilateral agency arrangements (eg between police and Customs officials and their counterparts abroad) were not affected: it is not intended to divert inter-agency requests, for instance under present wide-ranging international agreements which exist in the financial sector to the central authority. The main functions of a central authority are:

14.

(i) to act as a central point for the receipt of formal

requests;

(ii)

(iii)

(iv)

(v)

(vi)

to check incoming requests to determine if they are admissible under the relevant agreements;

to take action itself or pass the request to the relevant agency for action;

to send results to requesting central authorities (except where returned direct to an agency for confidentiality reasons, for example police or Customs information which may only be disclosed to comparable organisations in the requesting state);

to transmit United Kingdom letters of request to central authorities abroad; and

to consult other central authorities abroad on matters of difficulty.

The central authority therefore plays a key role in the effective management of a country's mutual assistance effort. The working group envisaged that the only action taken by a United Kingdom central authority itself under (iii) above would be the submission to Ministers of orders, along the lines of those at present required under section 5 of the 1873 Act requiring courts in England and Wales to take evidence. Other work generated by requests would be passed on to operational agencies. Similarly the drawing up of letters of request to other countries would continue to be the work as at present of the Crown Prosecution Service in England and Wales and the Crown Office in Scotland (or, in England and Wales and if the case was one in which the CPS would not be the prosecuting authority, by Customs or other investigative agency). The drawing up of letters of request in Northern Ireland under the Prosecution of Offences (Northern Ireland) Order 1982 would be the responsibility of the Director of Public Prosecutions for Northern Ireland.

15. The question of how a United Kingdom central authority would be constituted was considered by the working group at some length. It was concluded that it would be necessary to have a single United Kingdom central authority for the purpose of the European Convention, the Commonwealth Scheme and any bilateral treaties of similar nature, and that the central authority would be the Home Office. Staff with specialist knowledge would be seconded to the central authority from other Departments as necessary.

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