Section 12: Reports on the use of closed material procedure
101.Section 12 introduces an obligation on the Secretary of State to lay a report before Parliament on an annual basis on the operation of the CMP provisions. The report would cover certain matters related to proceedings where there is a declaration under section 6 in place, and proceedings treated as section 6 proceedings (including proceedings relating to an application for a declaration or revocation of a declaration and the review of certification under section 17(3)(e)).
102.Subsection (1) provides that the Secretary of State must prepare a report on the factual matters detailed in subsection (2) a year after section 6 comes into force and every year thereafter; and that this report and subsequent reports must be laid before Parliament
103.Subsection (2) lists the matters which must be included in the report. These are:
the number of applications made for a CMP declaration during the reporting period, broken down according to who made the application: the Secretary of State or other persons;
the number of declarations made by the court and the number of revocations of declarations made by the court during the reporting period according to who made the application or identifying where the court has court granted or revoked a declaration of its own motion;
the number of final judgments given in section 6 proceedings (this would include judgments made on the substantive trial and judgments made regarding the outcome of the application for a CMP declaration) which are closed judgments; and
the number of final judgments given in section 6 proceedings which are open judgments.
104.Subsection (3) allows for the Secretary of State to include further matters in the report that he considers appropriate in addition to those specified in subsection (2).
105.Subsection (4) sets out that the report should be prepared and laid before Parliament as soon as reasonably practicable after the end of the twelve month period to which it relates.
106.Subsection (5) sets out definitions used in this section. A ‘closed judgment’ refers to one that is not made available of fully available to the public. A ‘final judgment’ in relation to section 6 proceedings refers to a final judgment to determine the proceedings.
