R (on the application of River East Supplies Ltd) v The Crown Court at Nottingham (1) Chief Constable of Nottinghamshire Police (2) Secretary of State for The Home Department, Interested Parties

[2017] EWHC 1942 (Admin), Lord Justice Simon and Sir Kenneth Parker (Sitting as a High Court Judge), 14 and 15 June; 28 July 2017

Letters of request - Confidentiality - Privilege against self-incrimination - Common law - ECHR, article 6

The claimant, River East Supplies Ltd, is an online pharmaceutical company responsible for the wholesale and retail supply of pharmaceutical products. The company was the subject of an investigation conducted by the United States Food and Drug Administration. As part of this investigation, the authorities in the United States made a request for mutual legal assistance to the UK Central Authority by way of a letter of request. UK Central Authority put in a request to the relevant police force, who applied to the Crown Court for a production order. HHJ Spencer QC, sitting at Nottingham Crown Court, issued a production order requiring the claimant to produce a number of documents. The claimant sought judicial review of HHJ Spencer's decision to issue the production order on two grounds. First, when applying for the production order, the authority was obliged to disclose the letter of request so that the production order could be made based upon the letter itself, rather than UK Central Authority's interpretation of it. Secondly, it was argued that making the production order violated the claimant's right to privilege against self-incrimination.