Summary Offences Act 1953

In any proceedings under this Part the magistrate determining the proceedings—

must, on the application of the Commissioner of Police, take steps to maintain the confidentiality of information classified by the

Commissioner as criminal intelligence, including steps to receive evidence and hear argument about the information in private in the absence of the parties to the proceedings and their representatives;

and

may take evidence consisting of, or relating to, information that is so classified by the Commissioner by way of affidavit of a police officer of or above the rank of superintendent.

The duties imposed on a magistrate by subsection (1) in relation to proceedings under this Part apply to any court dealing with information properly classified under this Part as criminal intelligence or with the question of whether information has been properly classified under this Part by the Commissioner of Police as criminal intelligence.

The

Commissioner of Police may not delegate the function of classifying information as criminal intelligence for the purposes of this Part except to a Deputy Commissioner or Assistant Commissioner of Police.