Serious Organised Crime and Police Act 2005

General powers

5 SOCA’s general powers

(1) SOCA has the general powers conferred by this section.

(2) SOCA may—

(a) institute criminal proceedings in England and Wales or Northern Ireland;

(b) at the request of the chief officer of a police force within section 3(3) or of a special police force, act in support of any activities of that force;

(c) at the request of any law enforcement agency, act in support of any activities of that agency;

(d) enter into other arrangements for co-operating with bodies or persons (in the United Kingdom or elsewhere) which it considers appropriate in connection with the exercise of any of SOCA’s functions under section 2 or 3 or any activities within subsection (3).

(3) Despite the references to serious organised crime in section 2(1), SOCA may carry on activities in relation to other crime if they are carried on for the purposes of any of the functions conferred on SOCA by section 2 or 3.

(4) Subsection (3) does not affect the generality of section 3(1).

(5) SOCA may furnish such assistance as it considers appropriate in response to requests made by any government or other body exercising functions of a public nature in any country or territory outside the United Kingdom.

(6) Subsection (5) does not apply to any request for assistance which—

(a) could be made under section 13 of the Crime (International Co-operation) Act 2003 (c. 32) (requests by overseas authorities to obtain evidence), and

(b) is not a request in relation to which SOCA has functions under that section by virtue of an order under section 27(2) of that Act.

(7) In this section “law enforcement agency” has the meaning given by section 3(4).