The Armed Forces (Service Civilian Court) Rules 2009

PART 1PRELIMINARY

Citation and commencement

1.  These Rules may be cited as the Armed Forces (Service Civilian Court) Rules 2009 and shall come into force on 31st October 2009.

Interpretation: proceedings and parties

2.—(1) Unless otherwise stated, any reference in these Rules to proceedings is to—

(a)preliminary proceedings,

(b)trial proceedings,

(c)sentencing proceedings, and

(d)ancillary proceedings,

and does not include the exercise of any power of the court otherwise than at a hearing.

(2) In these Rules—

“activation order” means—

“activation proceedings” means proceedings for the making of an activation order, but does not include sentencing proceedings in which the court has power to make such an order;

“ancillary proceedings” means proceedings under any provision of Part 15;

“community order proceedings” means any proceedings under Chapter 1 of Part 15;

“preliminary proceedings” means any proceedings of the court held for the purpose of—

“related proceedings”, in relation to preliminary proceedings, means—

“sentencing proceedings” means proceedings for the sentencing of a person convicted by the court on a plea of guilty or in trial proceedings;

“trial proceedings” means proceedings for the trial of a charge by the court, and does not include sentencing proceedings.

(3) References in these Rules to a party to any proceedings are to—

(a)a person to whom the proceedings relate;

(b)the Director; and

(c)where the proceedings are for the hearing of an application (and the applicant is not a person to whom the proceedings relate), the applicant.

(4) References in these Rules to a person to whom proceedings relate are to—

(a)in the case of preliminary or trial proceedings, a defendant;

(b)in the case of sentencing proceedings, an offender who falls to be sentenced in the proceedings;

(c)in the case of activation proceedings, the offender in respect of whom the court has power to make an activation order in the proceedings;

(d)in the case of community order proceedings, the offender in respect of whom the overseas community order was made;

(e)in the case of a hearing of any other application (other than community order proceedings), the applicant;

(f)in the case of a hearing under rule 108 (certification of contempt of court), the person whose offence the court is to consider certifying.

(5) In these Rules—

“defendant” means a person against whom a charge allocated for Service Civilian Court trial has been brought;

“the Director” means the Director of Service Prosecutions.

Interpretation: general

3.—(1) Any reference in these Rules to a numbered section is to that section of the Act unless otherwise stated.

(2) In these Rules—

“the Act” means the Armed Forces Act 2006;

“the 1967 Act” means the Criminal Justice Act 1967(1);

“the 1999 Act” means the Youth Justice and Criminal Evidence Act 1999(2);

“the 2003 Act” means the Criminal Justice Act 2003;

“the CPIA Order” means the Criminal Procedure and Investigations Act 1996 (Application to the Armed Forces) Order 2009(3);

“advance information” has the meaning given by rule 30(2);

“bad character” has the meaning given by section 98 of the 2003 Act;

“civilian police force” means a UK police force or a British overseas territory police force;

“the court” means the Service Civilian Court;

“DX” means document exchange;

“detention and training order” means an order under section 211;

“the judge advocate”, in relation to any proceedings, means the judge advocate specified for the proceedings under section 278(2);

“legal representative” means a person appointed by a party to proceedings under rule 26;

“live link”, has the meaning given by rule 18(3)(a);

“pre-sentence report” has the meaning given by section 257; and

“unit” means—

(3) Any reference in these Rules to Schedule 8 to the 2003 Act is to that Schedule as modified by Schedule 5 to the Act.