1. How do I make a request for assistance?
If you are looking for us to use compulsory powers, you must send a Letter of Request to the United Kingdom Central Authority at this address:
The Officer in Charge
United Kingdom Central Authority
5th Floor, Fry Building
Home Office
2, Marsham Street
London
SW1P 4DF
Telephone: international code + 44-0207 035 4040
Fax: international code + 44-0207 035 6985
2. At what stage in my investigation may I send a Letter of Request?
The United Kingdom can usually act upon a Letter of Request if a criminal offence has been committed in your country (or there are reasonable grounds to suspect that a criminal offence has been committed in your country) and if you are investigating it. A person does not need to have been charged before you send your letter but a criminal investigation must have been opened officially.
3. What should the Letter of Request contain?
Our legislation does not require a Letter of Request to be in an official form, but it must contain all the information necessary to demonstrate that assistance is permissible under our legislation. To help you we have prepared a template which you may wish to use as a guideline when you are preparing your Letter of Request.
It is important that you understand:
- first that we will only undertake investigations that meet our criteria
- and second, that we must exercise our compulsory powers with great care and only where we can show that we have grounds to do so.
Therefore, Letters of Request must have sufficient information for us to determine that, in assisting with your investigation, we would be using our statutory powers legitimately.
View detailed guidelines on the content of letters
of request
In general terms your request must state:
- that the person making the request is competent under national law to make the request
- what the names of the suspects are and the suspected offences
- what you believe has occurred and what the suspects are believed to have done
- the investigations you wish us to carry out, and the connection between them and the offences you are investigating. For example, if we are requested to obtain bank statements from a particular account the Letter of Request must contain sufficient information for us to understand why information from the bank statements is likely to help further your investigation, for instance, by establishing the guilt or innocence of the suspects.
Click here for the Template Letter of Request.
Sample Letter of Request for evidence
Letter of Request for Restraint of Proceeds of
Crime
These points may help with your Letter of Request.
- Describe your organisation and your position in it. Please also confirm that you are permitted under your national law to make requests to foreign authorities for help in criminal cases.
- Explain which criminal offences you suspect have been committed in your country and give us the text of the laws concerned.
- When using our compulsory powers, we have to state the names of the persons or companies under investigation on any notices that we issue and serve on witnesses or other sources of evidence. Let us know if you believe this might jeopardise your enquiries.
- We are often asked whether it is necessary to send copies of documents with the Letter of Request. Documents can help explain the facts that you are investigating or to help us identify where evidence may be. Clearly, if you want a document to be shown to a witness, you do need to send a copy.
- It is extremely important that you tell us exactly what it is that you want us to do, for example:
- If you want us to obtain documents from a bank, we need as much information as you can give us. In the UK banks generally do not have an alphabetical register of the names of account holders and there is no central register of bank accounts. Copies of cheques or bank transfer information may help us as you will need to give us the name and address of the bank, the sort code (if you know it), all the details you have about the account (including its number, eg its IBAN number) and the type of documents which you want. If in doubt, it is sufficient to ask for "all documents relating to the account". Please note that it may also be difficult to obtain material which is more than five years old as Banks are only required to retain account records and information for a limited period.
- If a search is to take place, it is not usually necessary for a prosecutor or police officer from your country to be present. However, if you wish a representative to attend, we need the person's details (full name, rank, experience) in a Letter of Request or a seperate written document. S/he may not physically search for material but can accompany the police and SFO staff to advise on the relevance of any material found at the premises. Unfortunately, for legal reasons, a person who has diplomatic status (eg a member of staff of your embassy in London) is not permitted to be present at a search.
- Compulsory interviews will be conducted in English and will be controlled by someone from the Serious Fraud Office. It is not usually necessary for a representative from your country to be present. However, if the interview is likely to be particularly complicated, we can authorise an English speaking prosecutor from your country to attend. In appropriate circumstances, this person may be permitted to question the person directly. We need details about this person (full name, qualifications, experience) either in a Letter of Request or a separate written document. Please note that because our police officers may not conduct an SFO compulsory interview within the UK, foreign police officers are also not allowed to conduct interviews like this either.
- Please give us as much information as possible about persons whom you want us to find and interview, or from whom you want us to obtain documents. This includes, if you have them, full names, addresses, dates of birth, telephone numbers; and if you think it would help, a photograph.
- A person who is being interviewed is entitled to access to legal advice and may be accompanied by his/her lawyer. Your Letter of Request is confidential; we will not disclose it. However, we are obliged to conduct interviews fairly and reasonably. In complex cases, this generally means providing the interviewee with some indication, in advance, of the topics that s/he will be questioned about. It may also be helpful to provide him/her with copies of certain documents. These are matters that we will discuss with you at the appropriate time.
- At the beginning of the interview, the person concerned is warned in formal language that he is obliged by law to answer the questions truthfully and that failure to do so, without reasonable excuse, may result in his/her prosecution.
- The interviews are recorded. A copy of the storage media will be sealed and the unsealed copy will be used to make working copies. You will receive your own copy and, if the subject of the interview asks for one, s/he will be given a copy free of charge at the appropriate time. If you wish, a member of the SFO can swear an affidavit, producing the storage media or a transcript.
- Please note that our powers are intended to be used in order to gather information to assist in an investigation. We do not take evidence on oath. If you wish to obtain the sworn testimony of a witness, this can be done, but not by us. You must apply, by Letter of Request to the UK Central Authority. Someone there will consider nominating a court to take the evidence for you.
- For legal reasons, you must include in your Letter of Request
the following two undertakings:
- "If the Secretary of State for the Home Department decides to refer this Letter of Request to the Serious Fraud Office, I undertake that:-
- no document or other information obtained will be used, other than in criminal prosecutions arising from the investigation set out in this Letter of Request, without the prior consent of the Secretary of State for the Home Department; and
- no statement made by any person to the Serious Fraud Office in compliance with their compulsory powers, will be used against that person in a prosecution, unless evidence relating to it is adduced, or a question relating to it is asked in the proceedings, by or on behalf of that person."
The first undertaking is commonly required by most countries when granting legal assistance of this sort. The second one is required in case you ask us to exercise our statutory powers to interview a person whom you subsequently decide to prosecute. It is required in order to comply with the European Convention on Human Rights.
Please note that we will not be able to exercise any compulsory powers on your behalf until we obtain your undertakings. It is therefore essential that we receive them as soon as possible and preferably together with your Letter of Request.
4. How should the Letter of Request be sent?
This is primarily a matter for the law of your country. It may be that your law permits you to despatch a Letter of Request by post or by international courier (such as DHL) direct to the United Kingdom Central Authority. On the other hand your law may require you to pass a Letter of Request through diplomatic channels. Any of these methods are acceptable to the United Kingdom Central Authority, indeed in a case of urgency, the United Kingdom Central Authority is prepared to accept a Letter of Request by fax.
5. May I contact the Serious Fraud Office for advice before sending my Letter of Request?
Yes. We encourage early contact.
We are always happy to give advice on the text of a Letter of Request before it is sent. If your request is particularly lengthy or complicated, it may save time if you send us a copy, when you send your formal Letter to the UKCA. However, please remember that we will not be able to use any compulsory measures on your behalf until the UKCA formally refers your letter to us.
Because responsibilities within the Serious Fraud Office change from time to time, your best approach is to contact (by phone, fax, email or letter):
The Officer in Charge
International Assistance
Serious Fraud Office
Elm House
10-16 Elm Street
London
WC1X 0BJ
United Kingdom
Telephone: +44 (0)20 7239 7367 / +44 (0)20 7239 7102
Fax: + 44 (0)20 7833 5442
Email: MLA@sfo.gsi.gov.uk
6. Can the Serious Fraud Office obtain evidence anywhere in the United Kingdom?
We can help you get evidence in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. There are similar powers in Scotland, which are exercised by the Crown Office. If you need evidence in Scotland, we can put you in touch with the Crown Office. There are also similar powers in Jersey, Guernsey and the Isle of Man. Again, we can put you in touch with the appropriate authorities if necessary.
7. Can requests be made in money laundering or tax/fiscal fraud cases?
Money laundering that is serious or complex will almost always involve fraud, either because the funds that are being laundered are the proceeds of fraud, or because the process of laundering will involve fraudulent acts.
As far as serious or complex fiscal fraud is concerned, we can only help out in three situations.
1. If you have already instituted criminal proceedings for the fiscal fraud.
2. If your country and the United Kingdom are signatories to a Treaty (eg the Special Protocol on Fiscal Matters to the European Convention on Mutual Assistance in Criminal Cases) under which they agree to assist each other in the prosecution of fiscal offences.
3. The conduct constituting the fiscal offence would constitute an offence of the same or a similar nature if it had occurred in the United Kingdom.
8. Is it necessary for the legal system of the overseas country to be able to reciprocate if there were a similar United Kingdom request?
No. The UK does not require reciprocity, although naturally we hope that our partners will assist us where possible.
9. How much does it cost to make a request?
Most International Assistance and co-operation is provided free on the understanding that, if the Serious Fraud Office or United Kingdom authorities require assistance, it will also be provided free. Where we are likely to incur exceptional costs we will ask you for an appropriate contribution.
