Crown Prosecution Service, R (on the application of) v Croydon Crown Court

The High Court has no jurisdiction under section 29(3) of the Senior Courts Act 1981 to judicially review Crown Court orders in matters relating to trial on indictment. Confiscation proceedings are decisions about sentence and form an integral part of the trial process. The jurisdictional bar therefore applies to Crown Court decisions concerning confiscation. An adjournment will not ordinarily be granted where a jurisdictional issue was not properly addressed in advance and the parties have failed to provide a clear argument or skeleton argument.

The Crown Prosecution Service sought judicial review of decisions by the Croydon Crown Court refusing retrospectively to extend the time for confiscation proceedings and refusing to state a case for the opinion of the High Court. The proceedings followed the Interested Party’s convictions for benefit fraud and were governed by the Criminal Justice Act 1988. The CPS argued that the Crown Court had extended the statutory timetable by approving a revised timetable administratively. The central issue was whether the High Court had jurisdiction to review the Crown Court’s confiscation decisions.

1. Application dismissed. The High Court had no jurisdiction to entertain the judicial review claim.
2. Section 29(3) of the Senior Courts Act 1981 restricts the High Court’s judicial review jurisdiction in relation to Crown Court orders in matters relating to trial on indictment.
3. Confiscation proceedings fall within that restriction. They concern the Crown Court’s power under section 71(1) of the Criminal Justice Act 1988 to make a confiscation order. Decisions about confiscation are decisions about sentence and are an integral part of the trial process.
4. The court applied the reasoning in Faithfull v Ipswich Crown Court [2008] 1 WLR 1636, describing the relevant dictum as obviously and entirely correct.
5. The CPS’s application for an adjournment was refused. The jurisdiction point had not been addressed in a properly prepared skeleton argument, and the court considered that any argument should have been advanced clearly before the hearing.

• Croydon Crown Court: On 27 May 2014, the court refused retrospectively to extend the time for determining the confiscation proceedings. On 2 September 2014, it refused to state a case for the opinion of the High Court.
• High Court (Administrative Court): Permission having been granted on 23 March 2015, the judicial review application was dismissed for want of jurisdiction.