Crime (Overseas Production Orders) Act 2019

14 Means of service

(1) This section applies in relation to—

(a) the service of an overseas production order,

(b) the service of notice of an application for an overseas production order, and

(c) the service of any other order or document issued or made in, or for the purposes of, proceedings relating to an overseas production order by a court (including a single judge) in England and Wales, Scotland or Northern Ireland.

(2) The order, notice or other document may be served on a person (whether the person is in the United Kingdom or outside it) by such means, including electronic means, as rules of court permit.

(3) In addition, the order, notice or other document may be served on a person outside the United Kingdom in any of the following ways—

(a) by delivering it to the person’s principal office within the United Kingdom or, if the person has no such office in the United Kingdom, to any place in the United Kingdom where the person carries on business or conducts activities;

(b) if the person has specified an address in the United Kingdom as one at which the person, or someone on the person’s behalf, will accept service of documents of the same description as the order, notice or other document, by delivering it to that address;

(c) by making it available for inspection (whether to the person or to someone acting on the person’s behalf) at a place in the United Kingdom (but this is subject to subsection (4));

(d) in accordance with arrangements made—

(i) where the order, notice or other document is made or issued in England and Wales or Northern Ireland, by the Secretary of State;

(ii) where the order, notice or other document is made or issued in Scotland, by the Lord Advocate.

(4) The order, notice or other document may be served on a person outside the United Kingdom in the way mentioned in subsection (3)(c) only if—

(a) it is not reasonably practicable for it to be served by any other means (whether as mentioned in subsection (3)(a), (b) or (d) or as permitted by rules of court), and

(b) the person serving the order, notice or other document takes such steps as that person considers appropriate for the purpose of bringing its contents, and the availability of it for inspection, to the attention of the person on whom it is being served.

(5) The steps mentioned in subsection (4)(b) must be taken as soon as reasonably practicable after the order, notice or other document is made available for inspection.