Criminal Practice Directions 2015 (Amendment No. 6)

This amendment gives procedural guidance for criminal courts on open justice, case management, vulnerable witnesses and appellate advocacy. Access to court-held information should reflect open justice, subject to justified restrictions. Transcript of proceedings held in public should ordinarily be available, and cogent and compelling reasons are required to refuse it. Applications under section 41 require defined issues, identified questions and close ground-rules scrutiny. A cross-examination advocate appointed under section 38 has a limited statutory role, but must receive sufficient material to perform it. Indictments containing unrelated counts may require separate trials. Appeal grounds and skeleton arguments must be concise, properly particularised and compliant with procedural directions.

The Lord Chief Justice issued the sixth amendment to the Criminal Practice Directions 2015. It was issued on 21 March 2018 and came into force on 2 April 2018.

The amendment revised directions concerning access to court information and transcripts, indictment case management, visually recorded interviews, evidence of a complainant’s previous sexual behaviour, cross-examination advocates, appeal documents and skeleton arguments. It also defined the Special Jurisdiction of the Senior District Judge (Chief Magistrate).

This was not an appeal between parties. The instrument prescribed practice and procedure for future criminal proceedings.

1. Amendment issued. The Lord Chief Justice amended the Criminal Practice Directions 2015 with effect from 2 April 2018. The instrument did not determine an appeal or a claim.

2. Access to court information. The amendment restated open justice as the governing principle for requests for information and documents held by a criminal court. Access is subject to any applicable restriction and to a case-specific assessment. A request for a document should ordinarily first be made to the party who presented it. Written decisions delivered without a public hearing should usually be supplied once final where efficiency and expedition were the only reasons for using that procedure. The court should otherwise consider whether redaction, or public reasons supplemented by private reasons for the parties, is appropriate.

3. Transcripts. The ordinary operation of CrimPR 5.5 governs supply of a transcript. Reporting restrictions usually require a warning to the recipient rather than withholding the transcript. A judicial direction to redact or refuse a transcript is exceptional. Because the hearing was public, the court bears the burden of showing cogent and compelling reasons for refusal.

4. Indictments and vulnerable witnesses. The former joinder rule for multiple-count indictments had been abolished. Where counts are not founded on the same facts or a series of the same or similar character, the court may order separate trials and should manage the selection of counts having regard to its statutory powers and the overriding objective. A witness need not watch a visually recorded interview at the same time as the tribunal of fact. Applications to adduce evidence or cross-examine about a complainant’s previous sexual behaviour must comply with the timetable and content requirements in the directions, and each proposed question requires scrutiny.

5. Cross-examination advocates. A prospective representative may be appointed contingently under section 38 of the Youth Justice and Criminal Evidence Act 1999. The advocate is not responsible to the accused and has no general remit to conduct the trial. The advocate must nevertheless be given the material and information necessary to identify the issues and conduct an effective, professional cross-examination.

6. Appeals and listing. Appeal grounds and skeleton arguments must be concise, particularised and formatted as directed. The Senior District Judge’s Special Jurisdiction covers the defined categories of sensitive magistrates’ court cases and must be allocated in the stated order.

not stated in the judgment.