Saxon, R v Criminal Cases Review Commission
| Jurisdiction | England & Wales |
| Judge | LORD JUSTICE TUCKEY |
| Judgment Date | 31 August 2001 |
| Neutral Citation | [2001] EWCA Civ 1384 |
| Court | Court of Appeal (Civil Division) |
| Docket Number | C/2001/1605/A |
| Date | 31 August 2001 |
[2001] EWCA Civ 1384
IN THE SUPREME COURT OF JUDICATURE
COURT OF APPEAL (CIVIL DIVISION)
ON APPEAL FROM THE HIGH COURT OF JUSTICE
QUEEN'S BENCH DIVISION
DIVISIONAL COURT
(MASTER VENNE)
Royal Courts of Justice
The Strand
London
Lord Justice Tuckey
C/2001/1605/A
THE APPLICANT appeared in person
Friday 31 August 2001
: On 20 June 2001, the Divisional Court (Rose LJ and Silber J) refused the applicant, Vincent Leo Saxon's renewed application for permission to apply for judicial review of a decision of the Criminal Cases Review Commission not to refer his criminal convictions for dishonesty in 1996 to the Court of Appeal, Criminal Division. The applicant wants to appeal the Divisional Court's decision. He applied for permission to do so to this court, the Civil Division of the Court of Appeal. This court is entirely a creature of statute. By section 18(1)(a) of the Supreme Court Act 1981 it has no jurisdiction to hear an appeal from the Divisional Court in "any criminal cause or matter". On 10 July 2001, Master Venne directed that this application was in a criminal cause or matter and so this court had no jurisdiction. The applicant has asked for this decision to be reconsidered by the court under the provisions of CPR 52.16(5) and (6). That is the purpose of today's hearing.
In reaching his decision Master Venne relied on the decision of this court in ( R v Secretary of State for the Home Department, ex parte Garner unreported, 15.6.90). In that case the applicant, Mr Garner, attempted to appeal the Divisional Court's refusal of his application for judicial review of the Secretary of State's refusal to refer his sentence to the Court of Appeal, Criminal Division, under the provisions of section 17 of the Criminal Appeal Act 1968. That section said:
"(1) Where a person has been convicted on indictment …., the Secretary of State may, if he thinks fit, at any time either —
(a) refer the whole case to the Court of Appeal and the case shall then be treated for all purposes as an appeal to the Court by that person;…."
Appeals to the court under the 1968 Act are dealt with in sections 1 and 9 of the Act which deal respectively with conviction and sentence.
In giving the judgment of this court Lord Donaldson MR, with whom the other two members of the court agreed, said of the issue as to whether the proposed appeal was in a criminal cause or matter:
"…. the categorisation depends entirely on the nature of the underlying decision, that is to say the decision which was sought to be or, as the case may be, was in fact judicially reviewed.
…. For my part, I agree …. that the power to refer under section 17 is merely an extension of the rights of a convicted person to appeal against his conviction and/or his sentence under section 1 and/or section 9 of the Criminal Appeal Act 1968. It is, therefore, a typical criminal cause or matter, and it follows from that that we have no jurisdiction to entertain any appeal."
In 1995 the Secretary of State's power to refer cases to the Court of Appeal, Criminal Division, was revoked by the Criminal Appeal Act 1995 and replaced by similar powers conferred on the Criminal Cases Review Commission which was created by that Act. The relevant section is ...
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R Paul Cleeland v Criminal Cases Review Commission
...application for permission to appeal, in a criminal cause or matter (s.18(1)(a) of the Senior Courts Act 1981). In R (Saxon) v CCRC [2001] EWCA Civ 1384 it was decided that an application to review a decision of the CCRC not to refer a criminal conviction came within the terms of s.18(1)(a......