Everyone s afraid of breaching it when doing their jobs - even the police
The Law Commission, a government law reform body, published a report on search warrants in October 2020 that highlighted police fears about breaching the CMA while investigating online crimes. That report [PDF] recommended reform of the act for three reasons:
The first reason accords with the observation made by the Law Society and which we have endorsed elsewhere: it would be beneficial to both the individual subject to a warrant and investigators, to have clarity on the powers available and the extent of them.
The second reason is that the limits on the use of the power could then be made explicit in its statutory formulation.
By Sir Bob Neill2021-03-04T09:13:00+00:00
The current system for funding of private prosecutions is unfair. The Justice Committee concluded as much when we produced our report,
Private prosecutions: safeguardslast October. And the government agrees with that conclusion in the response we are publishing today, as well as pledging changes to the way that private prosecutions are funded.
Sir Bob Neill
I am delighted that the government has decided to support one of our recommendations and, crucially, has given a commitment to legislate.
Our inquiry into private prosecutions was prompted by the Criminal Cases Review Commission. The Commission wrote to us after it had referred a record number of convictions, all stemming from prosecutions brought by the Post Office, to the courts. We examined how private prosecutions were working in England and Wales. Overall, we concluded that private prosecutions play an important role and that the existing safeguards generally work well.
“People’s data is being accessed without consent and businesses are putting resources into tracking down criminals,” said Mike Shaw, who heads up the UK data regulator’s criminal investigations team.
“Once the data is in the hands of claims management companies, people are subjected to unwanted calls which can in turn lead to fraudulent personal injury claims. Offenders must know that we will use all the tools at our disposal to protect people’s information and prevent it from being used to make nuisance calls.
“This case shows that we can, and will take action, and that could lead to a prison sentence for those responsible.”