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Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Bill

105A: Clause 20, page 15, line 14, at end insert— ““( ) For the purposes of subsection (1), ““financial resources”” shall include all the realisable property of the individual subject to a restraint order under section 41 of the Proceeds of Crime Act 2002 (restraint orders). ( ) The Proceeds of Crime Act 2002 is amended as follows. ( ) In section 41, omit subsections (4) and (5) and substitute— ““(4)(a) A restraint order may be made subject to an exception for the provision of reasonable legal expenses in criminal proceedings in the Crown Court, whether or not they relate to an offence mentioned in Section 40(2) or (3), subject to conditions— (i) an application for the release of such expenses shall be made by the alleged offender to the Court where the offence for which they are required is to be tried, (ii) notice shall be given of the application to the prosecutor or the Director, (iii) the application shall be supported by a costs budget verified by the solicitor to the alleged offender, (iv) the budget shall be calculated on the basis of current legal aid rates, (b) The Court shall not make an order prejudicial to a co-defendant. (5) The Court shall supervise the course of an order made under subsection (4) above and may from time to time review the order on the application by the prosecutor or the Director, or by or on behalf of the alleged offender.””””