Serious Crime Bill [HL]

“(10)    Subject to subsection (11), nothing in this section shall authorise the
obtaining and disclosing of—

(a)   items subject to legal privilege, or

(b)   journalistic source material,

for the purpose of preventing or detecting serious crime.

(11)     The obtaining and disclosing of the items and material referred to
in subsection (10) may be authorised by a judge in accordance with
the procedure set out in section 22A.

(12)     In this section—

“items subject to legal privilege” has the same meaning as in
section 10 of the Police and Criminal Evidence Act 1984;

“journalistic source material” means material which may
identify a confidential journalistic source.”

“22A           Authorisation by a judge to obtain communications data: legal
privilege and journalistic source material

(1)     This section applies to an application for a warrant or authorisation
under section 22(11).

(2)     A person designated for the purpose of this Chapter may apply to
a judge for an authorisation.

(3)     The application must be made in writing and must set out the
grounds on which the application is made.

(4)     An application for an authorisation under section 22(11) must be
made on notice to any person to whom the authorisation or notice
which is the subject of the application relates save that notice of an
application is not required if the service of such notice may
seriously prejudice the investigation to which the application
relates.

(5)     Where notice of an application for an authorisation has been served
on a person, he shall not conceal, destroy, alter or dispose of the
material to which the application relates except with the leave of a
judge until—

(a)   the application is dismissed or abandoned; or

(b)   he has complied with an authorisation given on the
application.

(6)     An authorisation shall only be issued or granted if the judge is
satisfied that—

(a)   it is necessary for the purpose of preventing or detecting
serious crime, and

(b)   the conduct authorised is proportionate to what is sought to
be achieved by that conduct, having particular regard to the
importance of the protection of legally privileged
communications and journalistic sources.

(7)     In this section “judge” means a Circuit Judge.

(8)     In this section and in section 22(10) “serious crime” means the
committing or suspected committing of one or more of the offences
in England and Wales specified in Part 1 of Schedule 1 to the
Serious Crime Act 2007.””