New Zealand's Serious Fraud Office welcomed amendments to its governing legislation that passed their third reading, modernizing its powers to investigate and prosecute fraud and corruption involving digital evidence. The changes align the search warrant framework and evidence admissibility test with the Search and Surveillance Act 2012 and the Evidence Act 2006. The updated framework will allow the Serious Fraud Office to obtain evidence from digital devices and cloud services, apply orally to a judge or other judicial officer for search warrants, and exclude people from search sites. Courts will also be able to consider a broader range of factors when determining whether evidence is admissible.
2026-09-02Serious Fraud Office
New Zealand's Serious Fraud Office welcomes passage of digital evidence and search warrant reforms
New Zealand's Serious Fraud Office welcomed legislation modernizing its search warrant and evidence rules for digitally enabled fraud and corruption investigations. The reforms cover evidence held on devices and cloud services, oral warrant applications, access controls at search sites and a broader court assessment of evidence admissibility.