An application for a disclosure order may be made ex parte to a judge in chambers.

Rules of court may make provision as to the practice and procedure to be followed in connection with proceedings relating to disclosure orders.

If a F4National Crime Agency officer or a person falling within a description of persons specified by virtue of section 357(9) applies for a disclosure order, an application to discharge or vary the order need not be by the same F4National Crime Agency officer or (as the case may be) the same person falling within that description.

An application to discharge or vary a disclosure order need not be made by the same appropriate officer or (as the case may be) the same National Crime Agency officer that applied for the order (but must be made by an appropriate officer of the same description or (as the case may be) by another National Crime Agency officer).

If the application for the order was, by virtue of an order under section 453, made by an accredited financial investigator of a particular description, the reference in subsection (4A) to an appropriate officer of the same description is to another accredited financial investigator of that description.

References to a person who applied for a disclosure order must be construed accordingly.

Subsections (2) to F5(4B) do not apply to orders made in England and Wales for the purposes of a civil recovery investigation F6or an exploitation proceeds investigation.

An appropriate officer may not make an application for a disclosure order, or an application for the discharge or variation of such an order, unless the officer is a senior appropriate officer or is authorised to do so by a senior appropriate officer.