Criminal Law Legislation Update
| DOI | 10.1177/0022018315616010 |
| Author | Joanne Clough |
| Published date | 01 December 2015 |
| Date | 01 December 2015 |
| Subject Matter | Criminal Law Legislation Update |
Criminal Law Legislation Update
Criminal Law Legislation Update
As at 16 October 2015
Joanne Clough
Senior Lecturer in Law and Solicitor-Advocate, Northumbria University, UK
Criminal Procedure Rules 2015 and the Criminal Practice Directions
This year sees the tenth anniversary of the implementation of the Criminal Procedure Rules. The Crim-
inal Procedure Rules 2015 came into force on Monday 5 October 2015 through the implementation of SI
2015/1490(L.18). This latest version is the product of a major revision of the rules, incorporating many
recommendations from Sir Brian Leveson’s recent ‘Review of Efficiency in Criminal Proceedings’
(published 23 January 2015), as well as a reordering exercise which removes the previously empty pro-
visions and places the rules in the order they were originally intended. To complement the new rules, an
amended set of Criminal Practice Directions have been issued by the Lord Chief Justice, which come
into force on the same date. This update provides an overview of the most significant changes to the rules
to aid the busy practitioner.
Criminal Procedure Rules 2015
For clarity, the new rules replace the Criminal Procedure Rules 2014, the Criminal Procedure (Amend-
ment) Rules 2015 and the Criminal Procedure (Amendment No 2) Rules 2015. By way of transitional
arrangements, new rule 2.1(3) preserves any right or duty which exists under the Criminal Procedure
Rules 2014 at the date of implementation of the 2015 rules (5 October 2015). New rule 2.3 provides,
for the first time, a standard way of referring to the Criminal Procedure Rules as ‘CrimPR’. This is to
avoid confusion with the Civil Procedure Rules which are cited as ‘CPR’ and to ensure a standard and
consistent method of referring to the rules in the criminal courts.
Case management
Rule 3.3 now places an unequivocal duty on the parties in a criminal case to communicate with each
other from the beginning of a case for the purposes of: finding out if the defendant is to plead g uilty or
not guilty; what facts are agreed and which are disputed; what information or material is required by
one party of another and why; and what must be done by whom and by what date. This give se ffect to
the recommendation by Sir Brian Leveson that the rules need to impose a duty of direct engagement on
the identified representatives with case ownership responsibilities of a particular matter, to engage
with each other from the first available opportunity for the purposes of efficiency in ca se management.
Rule 3.13 requires a ‘Plea and Trial Preparation Hearing’ to take place in the Crown Court following
the sending of a case from the magistrates’ court. This amendment follows the recent changes to listing
practices in both the magistrates’ and Crown Courts whereby cases are listed according to whether it is
anticipated that the defendant will plead guilty or not guilty. The new procedure will see only one Plea
and Trial Preparation Hearing taking place, thus dispensing with the existing arrangement for
The Journal of Criminal Law
2015, Vol. 79(6) 378–384
ªThe Author(s) 2015
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DOI: 10.1177/0022018315616010
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