It shall no longer be mandatory for the period during which a jury, after retiring to consider their verdict, are enclosed to be continuous; and accordingly, in section 99 of the 1995 Act (seclusion of jury to consider verdict)—
(a)in subsection (1), for the word “after” there is substituted “while”;
(b)in subsection (2), for the words “until the jury” there is substituted “while the jury are enclosed and until they”;
(c)in subsection (4)(b), after the word “and” there is inserted “, unless under subsection (7) below the court permits them to separate,”; and
(d)at the end there is added—
“(7)The court may, if it thinks fit, permit the jury to separate even after they have retired to consider their verdict.”.