R (Hart and Others) v The Crown Court at Blackfriars and Another

Queen's Bench Division (Administrative Court), [2017] EWHC 3091 (Admin), Lord Justice Holroyde and Mr Justice Julian Knowles, 8, 9: 30 November 2017

Search warrants - Full and frank disclosure - Special procedure material - Police and Criminal Evidence Act 1984 - Tax advisers.

On one view this case does little more than re-state a number of established principles, even if the judgments usefully collate the relevant authorities and the principles to be derived from them. However, such a reading would overlook some subtle but important issues raised by the application of those principles. In recent years, there has been an increase in criminal investigations of alleged corporate and financial wrong-doing; indeed, the scheme created by OCS would likely have been attacked exclusively before the Tax Tribunal only a few years ago. At the same time, the volume of recent authorities on which the court was able to draw to identify the relevant principles shows the extent to which challenges to search warrants have grown in recent years. The juxtaposition of these two developments, possibly related to each other, has given rise to a number of issues which this case suggests may be nearing resolution.