Crime (Overseas Production Orders) Act 2019

Key Points

• Introduces overseas production orders to obtain data from abroad for law enforcement and prosecutors.
• Designations of international co-operation agreements (treaties) underpinning these orders are to be made by the Secretary of State through regulations, subject to a defined scope.
• Proposals sought stronger safeguards (e.g., death-penalty restrictions for partner states, independent judicial advisers, and GDPR/DPA priority in conflicts) and tighter limits on data scope (e.g., avoiding bulk data); some of these were debated but not all were enacted.
• Final agreed amendments clarified how orders are treated in court (proceedings can include making, variation, and revocation) and set out the basis for which international agreements can be designated.
• There were active debates about privacy protections and human rights (including whether GDPR/DPA should prevail and how to handle journalists’ data), but several more stringent safeguards were withdrawn rather than adopted in the final legislation.

Progress

The bill has completed its passage through Parliament and received Royal Assent on 12 February 2019, becoming law.

Voting

Two votes were recorded on 30 January 2019. An amendment (Amendment 18) was defeated 276–297; a new clause (New Clause 1) was approved 310–257. Party positions were mixed across MPs, with cross‑party backing for some changes but overall no uniform bloc decision across the main parties.