Criminal Investigation (Covert Powers) Act 2012

The principal law enforcement officer for an authorised operation, or any other law enforcement officer on behalf of the principal law enforcement officer, may apply to the authorising officer for a variation of authority for any one or more of the following purposes —

to extend the period of validity of the authority (except as provided by section 17(2));

to authorise additional or alternative persons to engage in controlled conduct for the purposes of the operation;

to authorise participants in the operation to engage in additional or alternative controlled conduct;

to identify additional suspects (to the extent known);

if the principal law enforcement officer has changed since the authority was granted, to identify the new principal law enforcement officer.

More than one application for a variation may be made in respect of the same authority, but no single variation may extend the period of validity of an authority for more than 6 months at a time.

An application for a variation of an authority may be made —

in writing (a formal variation application); or

orally (an urgent variation application), if the applicant has reason to believe that the delay caused by making a formal variation application may affect the success of the operation.

A formal variation application must be in a physical form, signed by the applicant.

However if it is impracticable in the circumstances for a physical document to be delivered to the authorising officer, a formal variation application may take the form of —

a fax; or

an email or other electronic document, in which case the document need not be signed.

An urgent variation application may be made in person, by telephone or any other electronic means.

The authorising officer may require the applicant to furnish such additional information concerning the proposed variation as is necessary for the authorising officer’s proper consideration of the application.

As soon as practicable after making an urgent variation application, the applicant must make a record in writing of the application and give a copy of it to the authorising officer.