{
  "url": "https://openlegislation.uk/draft-telecommunications-restriction-orders-custodial-institutions-england-and-wales-regulations-2016/note",
  "json_url": "https://openlegislation.uk/draft-telecommunications-restriction-orders-custodial-institutions-england-and-wales-regulations-2016/note.json",
  "legislation": "ukdsi/2016/9780111147030",
  "legislation_title": "The Telecommunications Restriction Orders (Custodial Institutions) (England and Wales) Regulations 2016",
  "legislation_url": "https://openlegislation.uk/draft-telecommunications-restriction-orders-custodial-institutions-england-and-wales-regulations-2016",
  "path": "note",
  "kind": "note",
  "number": null,
  "heading": "Explanatory note",
  "text": "(This note is not part of the Regulations)\nThese Regulations are made under section 80 of the Serious Crime Act 2015 and provide a mechanism whereby the county court may make an order, namely a “telecommunications restriction order”, requiring the disconnection of communication devices within prisons and other custodial institutions without authorisation.\nRegulation 3 sets out what the court must be satisfied of before making a telecommunications restriction order. It also contains at regulation 3(3) a power for the court to provide that an order, or any specified requirements of it, is not to apply in certain circumstances. This is to cater for the situation whereby a communication device is disconnected in error and obviates the need for an individual to apply to the court for the order to be varied or discharged.\nRegulation 4 specifies who may apply for a telecommunications restriction order and sets out who else might be a party to the proceedings.\nRegulation 5 imposes requirements on the applicant to give notice and information as specified (including information to the communications provider where a device is disconnected in error).\nRegulation 6 makes provision both as to the costs incurred in relation to the application for a telecommunications restriction order and as to the costs involved in complying with a telecommunications restriction order.\nRegulation 7 makes provision about appeals.\nRegulation 8 provides the court with a power to order non-disclosure of the information to any person, apart from the applicant and any other person(s) specified in the non-disclosure order, without the permission of the court. There is a further power conferred on the court at regulation 8(2) to order the non-disclosure of information to a party to the proceedings where the court is satisfied that it is in the public interest to do so. Regulation 8(3) provides that information provided in connection with an application for a telecommunications restriction order will not be made to any person until the court has first considered an application for non-disclosure of that information under regulation 8(1).\nRegulation 9 provides that the court may discharge a telecommunications restriction order (or any other order under the Regulations, for example an order under regulation 8), or extend or otherwise vary it. It makes further provision with respect to who may apply to the court in this regard and ancillary matters. In regulations 8 and 9 “the court” would be the county court or, on appeal, the Court of Appeal.\nRegulation 10 displaces the usual presumption that hearings are held in public and provides that, unless the court orders otherwise, any hearing must be held in private.\nRegulation 11 contains a requirement for the Secretary of State to carry out a review of these Regulations.\nThese Regulations will be supplemented by the Civil Procedure Rules 1998 and any relevant Practice Directions.\nA full impact assessment of the effect that this instrument will have on the costs of business and the voluntary sector is annexed to the Explanatory Memorandum which is available alongside the instrument at www.legislation.gov.uk .",
  "extent": null,
  "status": null,
  "version": "current",
  "annotations": [],
  "outstanding_effects": [],
  "provenance": {
    "source": "legislation.gov.uk",
    "source_url": "https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukdsi/2016/9780111147030/note",
    "retrieved_at": "2026-10-30T15:08:12.107991+00:00"
  },
  "licence": "Open Government Licence v3.0",
  "licence_url": "https://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/doc/open-government-licence/version/3/",
  "attribution": "Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Source: legislation.gov.uk, The National Archives."
}