Submit a mutual legal assistance request

Use this service to submit a request for mutual legal assistance (MLA) to the UK Central Authority (UKCA).

Who can use this service

This service is for:

• overseas authorities who want to request MLA from England, Wales or Nothern Ireland
• UK authorities who want to request MLA from another country

Requests must come from a competent authority. For example, a court that has criminal jurisdiction, a prosecuting authority or another authority that is legally permitted to make a request.

Who cannot use this service

You cannot use this service if:

• you are seeking assistance from Scotland only - these requests must be sent to the Crown Office (see our MLA guidance for more information)
• your request is about tax and fiscal customs matters only - these must be sent to HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) (see our MLA guidance for more information)

Before you start

You should provide us with all the necessary information to consider and carry out your request. You can find details on what we need for different assistance types in our MLA guidance for foreign authorities .

You must provide English versions of all letters of requests and other supporting documents.

EU Member States and the UK

EU Member States and the UK must use these forms to submit requests to each other:

• for MLA, the standard form for requests for mutual assistance
• for freezing of assets, the EU-UK TCA freezing provisional measures request form
• for confiscation of assets, the EU-UK TCA confiscation request form

You can find these forms on our MLA guidance for foreign authorities page. You must provide English versions of the forms, if applicable.

All other requesting countries, territories or organisations

You must provide your formal international Letter of Request (LOR) and any relevant translations and any additional materials, however there is no legal requirement to provide this on a standard template.

Providing additional information

If you are providing any additional information, this should be provided in English.