Senior Courts Act 1981

84 Power to make rules of court. E+W

(1) Rules of court may be made for the purpose of regulating and prescribing the practice and procedure to be followed in the [F1 Crown Court and the criminal division of the Court of Appeal].

(2) Without prejudice to the generality of subsection (1), the matters about which rules of court may be made under this section include all matters of practice and procedure in the Supreme Court which were regulated or prescribed by rules of court immediately before the commencement of this Act.

(3) No provision of this or any other Act, or contained in any instrument made under any Act, which—

(a) authorises or requires the making of rules of court about any particular matter or for any particular purpose; or

(b) provides (in whatever words) that the power to make rules of court under this section is to include power to make rules about any particular matter or for any particular purpose,

shall be taken as derogating from the generality of subsection (1).

[F2 (4) Rules made under this section shall have effect subject to any special rules for the time being in force in relation to proceedings in the Supreme Court of any particular kind.]

[F3 (5) Special rules may apply—

(a) any rules made under this section, or

(b) Civil Procedure Rules,

to proceedings to which the special rules apply.

(5A) Rules made under this section may apply—

(a) any special rules, or

(b) Civil Procedure Rules,

to proceedings to which rules made under this section apply.

(6) Where rules may be applied under subsection (5) or (5A), they may be applied—

(a) to any extent,

(b) with or without modification, and

(c) as amended from time to time.]

(7) No rule which may involve an increase of expenditure out of public funds may be made under this section except with the concurrence of the Treasury, but the validity of any rule made under this section shall not be called in question in any proceedings in any court either by the court or by any party to the proceedings on the ground only that it was a rule as to the making of which the concurrence of the Treasury was necessary and that the Treasury did not concur or are not expressed to have concurred.

(8) Rules of court under this section shall be made by statutory instrument subject to annulment in pursuance of a resolution of either House of Parliament; and the M1 Statutory Instruments Act 1946 shall apply to a statutory instrument containing such rules in like manner as if the rules had been made by a Minister of the Crown.

(9) In this section “special rules” means rules applying to proceedings of any particular kind in the Supreme Court, being rules made by an authority other than the [F4 Civil Procedure Rule Committee] or the Crown Court Rule Committee under any provision of this or any other Act which (in whatever words) confers on that authority power to make rules in relation to proceedings of that kind in the Supreme Court.

Textual Amendments

F1 Words in s. 84(1) substituted (26.4.1999) by 1997 c. 12, s. 10, Sch. 2 para. 1(4)(a); S.I. 1999/1009, art. 3(b)

F2 S. 84(4) omitted (26.4.1999) by virtue of 1997 c. 12, s. 10, Sch. 2 para. 1(4)(b); S.I. 1999/1009, art. 3(b)

F3 S. 84(5)(5A)(6) substituted (27.4.1997) for s. 84(5)(6) by 1997 c. 12, ss. 10, 11(2), Sch. 2 para. 1(4)(c); S.I. 1997/841, arts. 3(b), 4(b)

F4 Words in s. 84 substituted (26.4.1999) by 1997 c. 12, s. 10, Sch. 2 para. 1(4)(d); S.I. 1999/1009, art. 3(b)

Modifications etc. (not altering text)

C1 S. 84 extended by Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency Act 1988 (c. 8, SIF 88), s. 5

C2 S. 84 extended (1. 10. 1992) by Criminal Justice Act 1991 (c. 53, SIF 39:1), ss. 20(5)(a), 101(1), Sch. 12, para. 6; S.I. 1992/333, art. 2(2), Sch. 2.

S. 84 extended (4.7.1996 but with effect as mentioned in s. 1 (3)(5)) by 1996 c. 25, s. 19(1) (with s. 78(1)); S.I. 1997/682.

Marginal Citations

M1 1946 c. 36.