Legislation – The Criminal Procedure (Amendment No. 2) (Coronavirus) Rules 2020

Amendments to the Criminal Procedure Rules6.

In Part 3 (Case management)—

(a)

in rule 3.2 (The duty of the court)—

(i)

for paragraphs (4) and (5) substitute—

“(4)

Where appropriate live links are available, making use of technology for the purposes of this rule includes giving a live link direction―

(a)

for the conduct of any hearing by live link under a power to which the rules in Part 18 apply (Measures to help a person give evidence or otherwise participate); and

(b)

whether an application for such a direction is made or not.”, and

(ii)

for the note to the rule substitute—

“[Note. In relation to taking part by live link at a pre-trial hearing, see sections 46ZA and 47 of the Police and Criminal Evidence Act 19844 and section 57B of the Crime and Disorder Act 19985. In relation to taking part by live link at a sentencing or enforcement hearing, see sections 57E and 57F of the 1998 Act6.

In relation to taking part by live link at trial, etc., see sections 19, 24 and 33A of the Youth Justice and Criminal Evidence Act 19997 and section 51 of the Criminal Justice Act 20038. Part 18 (Measures to help a person give evidence or otherwise participate) contains relevant rules.]”;

(b)

in rule 3.3 (The duty of the parties), from paragraph (2)(e)(i) omit “or (5)” and “or telephone”;

(c)

in rule 3.5 (The court’s case management powers), for paragraph (2)(d) substitute—

“(d)

receive applications, notices, representations and information by letter, by live link, by email or by any other means of electronic communication, and conduct a hearing by live link or other such electronic means;”;

(d)

in rule 3.9 (Case preparation and progression)—

(i)

after paragraph (7) insert—

“(8)

Facilitating the participation of any person includes giving a live link direction under a power to which the rules in Part 18 apply (Measures to help a person give evidence or otherwise participate)―

(a)

where appropriate live links are available;

(b)

for a witness or the defendant to give evidence by live link, subject to the requirements listed in rule 18.23 (Exercise of court’s powers) and in rule 18.24 (Content of application for a live link direction);

(c)

for a person to attend a hearing by live link when not giving evidence, subject to those requirements; and

(d)

whether an application for such a direction is made or not.”, and

(ii)

for the first paragraph of the note to the rule substitute—

“[Note. Part 18 (Measures to help a person give evidence or otherwise participate) contains rules about applications for special measures directions, defendant’s evidence directions and live link directions.”; and

(e)

in rule 3.28 (Directions for commissioning medical reports, other than for sentencing purposes), at the end of the third paragraph of the note to the rule insert—

“The court may act on the evidence of only one such practitioner for the purposes of the legislation listed in (c), (d) and (e) above where section 10 of the Coronavirus Act 20209 applies and the court is satisfied that to comply with the requirement for two is impractical or would involve undesirable delay.”.