The Criminal Justice Act 2003 (Commencement No. 29 and Saving Provisions) Order 2012

Citation, extent and interpretation

1.—(1) This Order may be cited as the Criminal Justice Act 2003 (Commencement No. 29 and Saving Provisions) Order 2012.

(2) This Order does not extend to Northern Ireland.

(3) In this Order “the 1998 Act” means the Crime and Disorder Act 1998(1).

Provisions coming into force on 5th November 2012 in certain local justice areas and the Crown Court for certain purposes

2.—(1) The following provisions of the Criminal Justice Act 2003 come into force on 5th November 2012 in relation to the relevant local justice areas—

(a)section 41 (allocation of offences triable either way, and sending cases to Crown Court), so far as it relates to the provisions specified in sub-paragraph (c);

(b)section 332 (repeals), so far as it relates to the provisions specified in sub-paragraph (d);

(c)Schedule 3(2) (allocation of cases triable either way, and sending cases to the Crown Court etc), so far as it is not already in force, other than—

(i)paragraph 19(1) (restrictions on reporting of allocation or sending proceedings), so far as it would insert section 52B(4) of the 1998 Act;

(ii)paragraph 19(2)(b);

(iii)paragraph 57(2) (amendment of section 7A of the Prosecution of Offences Act 1985(3));

(iv)paragraph 66(4), so far as it would omit paragraph (a) of the modified section 3(8) of the 1996 Act (initial duty of prosecutor to disclose);

(v)paragraphs 70 and 71(d) (extending to Northern Ireland reporting restrictions for applications for dismissal);

(d)Part 4 of Schedule 37(4) (repeals), so far as it is not already in force, other than the entry relating to paragraph (a) of the modified section 3(8) of the 1996 Act.

(2) The relevant local justice areas are specified in the Schedule.

(3) The provisions specified in paragraph (1) are also to come into force on 5th November 2012 in relation to the Crown Court where it deals with—

(a)a person sent for trial by a magistrates’ court in a relevant local justice area;

(b)a person committed for sentence by a magistrates’ court in a relevant local justice area.

(4) In this article “the 1996 Act” means the Criminal Procedure and Investigations Act 1996(5).

Saving provisions

3.—(1) The amendments coming into force by virtue of article 2 are to have no effect in relation to an offence (“the relevant offence”) if condition 1 or 2 is satisfied in respect of that offence.

(2) Condition 1 is satisfied if a person first appeared in respect of the relevant offence before 5th November 2012.

(3) Condition 2 is satisfied if—

(a)a person first appears in respect of the relevant offence on or after 5th November 2012,

(b)the relevant offence is related to an offence which is triable only on indictment (“the indictable-only offence”), and

(c)the person who is charged with the indictable-only offence first appeared in respect of that offence before 5th November 2012.

(4) For the purposes of this article—

(a)a person (“A”) first appears in respect of an offence where A appears or is brought before a magistrates’ court for the first time in the proceedings in respect of the offence with which A is charged;

(b)a relevant offence is related to an indictable-only offence if, were a magistrates’ court to apply section 51 of the 1998 Act as it was in force immediately before 5th November 2012, that court would be required to send the person charged with the relevant offence to the Crown Court for trial for that offence, or could do so.

Effect on coming into force of provisions in Schedule 3 to the Criminal Justice Act 2003 of combining certain local justice areas on 1st January 2013

4.—(1) The amendments coming into force by virtue of article 2 are to have the same effect on or after 1st January 2013 as they had before that date in relation to the local justice areas of Halton and Warrington, notwithstanding those areas being combined to become the local justice area of North Cheshire(6).

(2) The amendments coming into force by virtue of article 4 of the Criminal Justice Act 2003 (Commencement No. 28 and Saving Provisions) Order 2012(7) and article 2 of this Order are to have the same effect on or after 1st January 2013 as they had before that date in relation to the local justice areas of Bath and Wansdyke; North Somerset; South Somerset and Mendip; and Taunton Deane, West Somerset and Sedgemoor, notwithstanding those areas being combined to become the local justice area of Somerset(8).