This Statutory Instrument has been made in consequence of a defect in SI 2012/1635 and is being issued free of charge to all known recipients of that Statutory Instrument.

2012 No. 2067

Criminal Law, England And Wales

The Prosecution of Offences Act 1985 (Specified Proceedings) (Amendment No. 2) Order 2012

Made

Laid before Parliament

Coming into force

The Solicitor General makes the following Order in exercise of the powers conferred by section 3(3) of the Prosecution of Offences Act 19851.

Citation and commencement1

This Order may be cited as the Prosecution of Offences Act 1985 (Specified Proceedings) (Amendment No. 2) Order 2012 and comes into force on 3rd September 2012.

Amendment of the Prosecution of Offences Act 1985 (Specified Proceedings) Order 19992

1

The Prosecution of Offences Act 1985 (Specified Proceedings) Order 19992 is amended as follows.

2

In article 3(3)(a), for “section 11(1)(a)” substitute “section 11(1)”.

Edward GarnierSolicitor General
EXPLANATORY NOTE

(This note is not part of the Order)

This instrument corrects an error in the Prosecution of Offences Act 1985 (Specified Proceedings) (Amendment) Order 2012.

That Order amends the Prosecution of Offences Act 1985 (Specified Proceedings) Order 1999 (S.I. 1999/904) in order to extend the circumstances in which proceedings for particular offences are exempt from the general duty of the Director of Public Prosecutions under section 3(2)(a) of the Prosecution of Offences Act 1985 to take over the conduct of criminal proceedings instituted on behalf of a police force. One of the amendments was intended to achieve the effect that proceedings no longer cease to be specified where a magistrates’ court proceeds in the absence of the accused. Due to a drafting error, this provision was only applied to proceedings against a defendant under the age of 18. Proceedings thus still cease to be specified if a court proceeds in the absence of an adult defendant. That was not the intention.

This Order accordingly corrects the error by substituting a reference to section 11(1) of the Magistrates’ Courts Act 1980 for the reference to section 11(1)(a) which was inserted in the Prosecution of Offences Act 1985 (Specified Proceedings) Order 1999 by the previous amending Order.

A full regulatory impact assessment has not been produced for this Order as no impact on the private or voluntary sectors is foreseen.