C12 Procedure for indictment of offenders.
1
Subject to the provisions of this section, a bill of indictment charging any person with an indictable offence may be preferred by any person before a court in which the person charged may lawfully be indicted for that offence F26... and it shall thereupon become an indictment and be proceeded with accordingly:
F27...
2
Subject as hereinafter provided no bill of indictment charging any person with an indictable offence shall be preferred unless either—
a
the person charged has been F14sent for trial for the offence; or
F15aa
the offence is specified in a notice of transfer under section 4 of the Criminal Justice Act 1987 (serious and complex fraud); or
F15ab
the offence is specified in a notice of transfer under section 53 of the Criminal Justice Act 1991 (violent or sexual offences against children); or
F15ac
the person charged has been sent for trial for the offence under section 51 (no committal proceedings for indictable-only offences) of the Crime and Disorder Act 1998 (“the 1998 Act”); or
C2b
F21ba
the bill is preferred with the consent of a judge of the Crown Court following a declaration by the court under paragraph 8(1) of Schedule 17 to the Crime and Courts Act 2013 (court approval of deferred prosecution agreement); or
c
the bill is preferred under section 22B(3)(a) of the M1Prosecution of Offences Act 1985.
Provided that—
F16i
where the person charged has been sent for trial, the bill of indictment against him may include, either in substitution for or in addition to any count charging an offence specified in the notice under F22section 51D(1) of the Crime and Disorder Act 1998, any counts founded on material which, in pursuance of regulations made under paragraph 1 of Schedule 3 to that Act, was served on the person charged, being counts which may lawfully be joined in the same indictment;
F17iA
in a case to which paragraph (aa) F5or (ab) above applies, the bill of indictment may include, either in substitution for or in addition to any count charging an offence specified in the notice of transfer, any counts founded on material that accompanied the copy of that notice which, in pursuance of F6regulations under the relevant provision, was given to the person charged, being counts which may lawfully be joined in the same indictment;
F17iB
in a case to which paragraph (ac) above applies, the bill of indictment may include, either in substitution for or in addition to any count charging an offence specified in the notice under section 51(7) of the 1998 Act, any counts founded on material which, in pursuance of regulations made under paragraph 1 of Schedule 3 to that Act, was served on the person charged, being counts which may be lawfully joined in the same indictment;
ii
3
If a bill of indictment F28has been preferred otherwise than in accordance with the provisions of the last foregoing subsection F29..., the indictment shall be liable to be quashed:
Provided that—
a
if the bill contains several counts, and the said provisions have been complied with as respects one or more of them, those counts only that were wrongly included shall be quashed under this subsection; and
b
where a person who has been F20sent for trial is convicted on any indictment or any count of an indictment, that indictment or count shall not be quashed under this subsection in any proceedings on appeal, unless application was made at the trial that it should be so quashed.
F94
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6
F12F23Criminal Procedure Rules may make provision for carrying this section into effect and F13, in particular, provision as to the manner in which and the time at which bills of indictment are to be preferred before any court and the manner in which application is to be made for the consent of a judge of the High Court F10... for the preferment of a bill of indictment.
F256ZA
Where a bill of indictment is preferred in accordance with subsections (1) and (2), no objection to the indictment may be taken after the commencement of the trial by reason of any failure to observe any rules under subsection (6).
6ZB
For the purposes of subsection (6ZA) the trial commences at the time when a jury is sworn to consider the issue of guilt or whether the accused did the act or made the omission charged, or, if the court accepts a plea of guilty before the time when a jury is sworn, when that plea is accepted.
6ZC
The references in subsection (6ZB) to the time when a jury is sworn include the time when that jury would be sworn but for the making of an order under Part 7 of the Criminal Justice Act 2003.
F246A
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7
F11... Nothing in this section shall affect any enactment restricting the right to prosecute in particular classes of case.
8
The provisions of any enactment passed before the commencement of this Act shall have effect subject to the adaptations and modifications specified in the Second Schedule to this Act.