Amendment to the Director of Public Prosecutions Act 1986
Fri Nov 25 2011The Director of Public Prosecutions (Disclosures) Bill 2011 yesterday passed through both houses of the NSW Parliament. The object of this bill, as provided by the explanatory notes,�is to amend the Director of Public Prosecutions Act 1986 to ensure that police officers investigating alleged indictable offences are not required to disclose to the DPP information, documents or other things obtained during the investigation that are the subject of a bona fide claim of privilege, public interest immunity or statutory immunity. In such a case, police officers will only have a duty to inform the DPP that they have obtained information, documents or other things of that kind. The Bill temporarily suspends the effect of the decision of the Court of Criminal Appeal in R v Lipton [2011] NSWCCA 247 to enable the continuation of the current practice while a review of the proper scope of the duty of disclosure is carried out. Accordingly, the amendment ceases to have effect on 1 January 2013.
25 November 2011