Act of Adjournal (Criminal Procedure Rules 1996 and Act of Adjournal (Criminal Procedure Rules 1996 Amendment) (No. 4) (Sheriff Appeal Court) 2015 Amendment) (Miscellaneous) 2015

Amendment of Chapter 2 of the Criminal Procedure Rules 1996

2.—(1) Chapter 2 (service of documents) of the Criminal Procedure Rules 1996(1) is amended in accordance with this paragraph.

(2) In rule 2.3A (service etc. on accused through a solicitor)(2)—

(a) the existing rule becomes paragraph (1);

(b) after paragraph (1) insert—

“(2) Paragraph (3) applies where a party requires to intimate—

(a) a vulnerable witness notice in accordance with section 271A(13) of the Act of 1995 (child and deemed vulnerable witnesses)(3); or

(b) a vulnerable witness application in accordance with section 271C(11) of the Act of 1995 (vulnerable witness application).

(3) Intimation may be given to a solicitor under section 72G or 148D of the Act of 1995 by—

(a) any of the methods specified in paragraph (1); or

(b) sending it to the solicitor via the CJSM system, if that solicitor is a CJSM user.

(4) In this rule—

“CJSM user” means a solicitor who has an active account on the CJSM system;

“CJSM system” means the Criminal Justice Secure eMail system(4) managed by the Ministry of Justice to facilitate the transmission of encrypted sensitive information between criminal justice organisations and practitioners.”.

(1)

The Criminal Procedure Rules 1996 are in Schedule 2 to the Act of Adjournal (Criminal Procedure Rules) 1996 (S.I. 1996/513, last amended by S.S.I. 2015/245). Chapter 2 was last amended by S.S.I. 2010/418.

(2)

Rule 2.3A was inserted by S.S.I. 2005/434 and amended by S.S.I. 2007/511.

(3)

Section 271A was inserted by the Vulnerable Witnesses (Scotland) Act 2004 (asp 11), section 1(1) and last amended by the Criminal Justice and Licensing (Scotland) Act 2010 (asp 3), section 87(3). It is prospectively amended by the Victims and Witnesses (Scotland) Act 2014 (asp 1), sections 11 to 13.

(4)

The CJSM system may be found at http://cjsm.justice.gov.uk.