The Magistrates' Courts (Wales) (Consequences of Local Government Changes) Order 1996

1.—(1) This Order may be cited as the Magistrates' Courts (Wales) (Consequences of Local Government Changes) Order 1996 and, subject to paragraph (2), shall come into force on 1st April 1996.

(2) This Order shall come into force immediately after the coming into force of the Local Government Changes for England (Magistrates' Courts) Regulations 1996(1).

2.  The Acts and statutory instruments listed in the Schedule shall be amended or construed as provided therein.

3.—(1) Every person who immediately before 1st April 1996 holds office as a justice of the peace for an old commission area shall on and after that date hold office as a justice of the peace for the new commission area which includes the petty sessions area for which he acts, and the commissions of the peace for the old commission areas shall accordingly have effect as commissions of the peace for the new commission areas.

(2) In paragraph (1)—

“old commission area” means an area in Wales for which there was a commission of the peace immediately before 1st April 1996;

“new commission area” means an area in Wales for which, in accordance with section 1 of the Justices of the Peace Act 1979(2), there should be a commission of the peace on and after 1st April 1996.

4.  Where by virtue of an order under section 55 of the Local Government (Wales) Act 1994 one or more commission areas are created, abolished or altered, article 3 shall have effect in relation to that change with the following modifications:

(a) for every reference to 1st April 1996 there shall be substituted the date on which the order comes into force;

(b) for the reference to section 1 of the Justices of the Peace Act 1979 there shall be substituted a reference to the order;

(c) at the end of paragraph (1) there shall be inserted the words “until such time as commissions of the peace for the new commission areas are granted”.

5.—(1) Subject to any order made under section 55 of the Local Government (Wales) Act 1994, every petty sessions area which, immediately before 1st April 1996, was a petty sessional division of a county in Wales shall continue in existence on and after that date as a petty sessional division of the preserved county corresponding to that county.

(2) Subject to any order made under section 69 of the Police and Magistrates' Courts Act 1994(3), every magistrates' courts committee for a county in Wales existing immediately before 1st April 1996 shall continue in existence on and after that date as the magistrates' courts committee for the preserved county corresponding to that county.

(3) In this article a preserved county corresponds to a county if it comprises all or most of the area of that county as it existed immediately before 1st April 1996.

Mackay of Clashfern, C.

Dated 6th March 1996