The purpose of amendment No. 166 is to make it absolutely clear that there is an obligation on the prosecutor to give the court a statement of information in every case in which he is seeking a confiscation order within a period specified by the court. Amendment Nos. 167 and 168 are purely drafting amendments.

Amendment No. 169 inserts a cross-reference to clause 102 to ensure that the prosecutor receives notice of the accused's response to the statement of information no later than six months before the end of the postponement period, which is a maximum of two years. That is designed to ensure that the final confiscation hearing can take place before the end of the postponement period. Amendment No. 170 is also a purely drafting amendment and is designed to bring the wording of clause 106(4) in line with that of clause 19(5).

Clause 105 gives the accused the opportunity to contest the prosecutor's allegations in the statement of information that is provided under clause 104. Clause 106 empowers the court, at any stage in the confiscation proceedings, to order the accused to provide information that it needs to enable it to carry out its confiscation functions. The power is important and flexible and may be used by the court, for example, to require the accused to provide further information about a point in the prosecutor's statement. The power reproduced in clause 106 has proved useful in practice.