Section 33: Power to make travel restriction orders
112.This section sets out the arrangements under which a court may impose a travel banning order on an individual convicted of a drug trafficking offence, as defined in section 34. The orders will be available to the courts as a sentencing option in respect of offences committed after the date that these measures come into force or, in the case of offences added by order under section 34(1)(c), committed after the coming into force of the relevant order. The court may also order the surrender of any UK passport held by the individual. This means a current passport issued by the government of the United Kingdom, the Channel Islands, the Isle of Man or a dependent territory. It is intended that these new powers should apply to serious cases of drug trafficking and they are therefore only available where the court imposes a sentence of four years or more. The four-year sentencing threshold has been chosen in accordance with sentencing guidelines issued by the Court of Appeal. In such a case the court will be under a duty to consider the making of a travel restriction order. Where the court decides that a ban is not appropriate, it will be required to give reasons.
113.The period of the banning order will run from the point of the offender’s long-term release from custody (e.g. on licence). It will not be triggered by periods on bail or temporary release. It will last for a minimum period of two years.
