Magistrates' Courts Act 1980

42Restriction on justices sitting after dealing with bail

(1)A justice of the peace shall not take part in trying the issue of an accused's guilt on the summary trial of an information if in the course of the same proceedings the justice has been informed, for the purpose of determining whether the accused shall be granted bail, that he has one or more previous convictions.

(2)For the purposes of this section any committal proceedings from which the proceedings on the summary trial arose shall be treated as part of the trial.