The Criminal Procedure Rules 2020

Trial in private

6.6.—(1) This rule applies where the court can order a trial in private.

(2) A party who wants the court to do so must—

(a) apply in writing not less than 5 business days before the trial is due to begin; and

(b) serve the application on—

(i) the court officer, and

(ii) each other party.

(3) The applicant must explain—

(a) the reasons for the application;

(b) how much of the trial the applicant proposes should be in private; and

(c) why no measures other than trial in private will suffice, such as—

(i) reporting restrictions,

(ii) an admission of facts,

(iii) the introduction of hearsay evidence,

(iv) a direction for a special measure under section 19 of the Youth Justice and Criminal Evidence Act 1999,

(v) a witness anonymity order under section 86 of the Coroners and Justice Act 2009, or

(vi) arrangements for the protection of a witness.

(4) Where the application includes information that the applicant thinks ought not be revealed to another party, the applicant must—

(a) omit that information from the part of the application that is served on that other party;

(b) mark the other part to show that, unless the court otherwise directs, it is only for the court; and

(c) in that other part, explain why the applicant has withheld that information from that other party.

(5) The court officer must at once—

(a) display notice of the application somewhere prominent in the vicinity of the courtroom; and

(b) give notice of the application to reporters by such other arrangements as the Lord Chancellor directs.

(6) The application must be determined at a hearing which—

(a) must be in private, unless the court otherwise directs;

(b) if the court so directs, may be, wholly or in part, in the absence of a party from whom information has been withheld; and

(c) in the Crown Court, must be after the defendant is arraigned but before the jury is sworn.

(7) At the hearing of the application—

(a) the general rule is that the court must consider, in the following sequence—

(i) representations first by the applicant and then by each other party, in all the parties’ presence, and then

(ii) further representations by the applicant, in the absence of a party from whom information has been withheld; but

(b) the court may direct other arrangements for the hearing.

(8) The court must not hear a trial in private until—

(a) the business day after the day on which it orders such a trial, or

(b) the disposal of any appeal against, or review of, any such order, if later.