HC Deb 24 January 1994 vol 236 c52W
Mrs. Roche

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department whether his Department grants the power to execute a search warrant to anyone other than police officers where inquiries are being made into the immigration status of someone who is known or suspected to be in breach of immigration laws.

Mr. Charles Wardle

Paragraph 17(2) of schedule 2 to the Immigration Act 1971 provides for a warrant granted by a justice of the peace to enter premises to search for a person liable to detention, to be executed only by a constable.

Section 16(2) of the Police and Criminal Evidence Act 1984 provides that such a warrant may authorise persons to accompany any constable who is executing it.