"may, if he thinks fit," (and we emphasise these words) nominate a court in England, Wales, Northern Ireland or Scotland to receive the relevant evidence. At that stage the Secretary of State could only nominate a court, but this was altered and enlarged subsequently in 1994. The importance of the words "may, if he thinks fit" is simply that this enables the Secretary of State to perform the task, derived from Article 2 of the 1959 Convention, of first making the assessment of the political and international implications of the request, and any response to it, which the Secretary of State, as a senior minister accountable to Parliament, is in a position to make with the benefit of all the resources of the Foreign Office, the Home Office and other Government Departments, and where appropriate, with the benefit of consultation with other ministers.

Provision was made in section 32(4) of the 1990 Act for the extension of the 1990 Act to Guernsey with modifications (if any) by Order in Council. The 1990 Act came into force in England and Wales in the course of June 1991.

The next step was the enactment by the United Kingdom Parliament of the Criminal Justice and Public Order Act 1994 ("the 1994 Act"). By section 164 of the 1994 Act amendments were made to section 2 of the 1987 Act. The effect of these amendments was to enable further authorities to request the Director of the Serious Fraud Office to exercise his powers of investigation in respect of "serious or complex fraud".