The Armed Forces (Powers of Stop and Search, Search, Seizure and Retention) Order 2009

Additional powers of seizure from the person

20.—(1) This paragraph applies where—

(a) a service policeman carrying out a lawful search of any person finds something that he has reasonable grounds for believing may be or may contain something for which he is authorised to search;

(b) a power of seizure conferred by section 73 of the Act or paragraph (3) would entitle him, if he found it, to seize whatever it is that he has grounds for believing that thing to be or to contain; and

(c) in all the circumstances it is not reasonably practicable for it to be determined, at the time and place of the search—

(i) whether what he has found is something that he is entitled to seize; or

(ii) the extent to which what he has found contains something that he is entitled to seize.

(2) Where paragraph (1) applies, the service policeman’s powers of seizure shall include power under this article to seize so much of what he has found as it is necessary to remove from that place to enable it to be determined—

(a) whether what he has found is something that he is entitled to seize; or

(b) the extent to which what he has found contains something that he is entitled to seize.

(3) Where—

(a) a service policeman carrying out a lawful search of any person finds something (“the seizable property”) which he would be entitled to seize but for its being comprised in something else that he has (apart from this paragraph) no power to seize,

(b) the power under which that service policeman would have power to seize the seizable property is a power under section 73 of the Act, and

(c) in all the circumstances it is not reasonably practicable for the seizable property to be separated, at the time and place of the search, from that in which it is comprised,

that service policeman’s powers of seizure shall include power under this article to seize both the seizable property and that from which it is not reasonably practicable to separate it.

(4) The factors to be taken into account in considering, for the purposes of this article, whether or not it is reasonably practicable, at the time and place of a search, for something to be determined, or for something to be separated from something else, shall be confined to the following—

(a) how long it would take to carry out the determination or separation at that time and place;

(b) the number of persons that would be required to carry out that determination or separation at that time and place within a reasonable period;

(c) whether the determination or separation would (or would if carried out at that time or place) involve damage to property;

(d) the apparatus or equipment that it would be necessary or appropriate to use for the carrying out of the determination or separation; and

(e) in the case of separation, whether the separation—

(i) would be likely, or

(ii) if carried out by the only means that are reasonably practicable at that time and place, would be likely,

to prejudice the use of some or all of the separated seizable property for a purpose for which something seized under the power in question is capable of being used.

(5) Article 14(6) shall not apply to the power of seizure conferred by paragraph (3).