The Prosecution of Offences Act 1985 (Specified Proceedings) (Amendment) Order 2012

Amendment of the Prosecution of Offences Act 1985 (Specified Proceedings) Order 1999

2.—(1) The Prosecution of Offences Act 1985 (Specified Proceedings) Order 1999(1) is amended as follows.

(2) In article 3, for paragraph (3) substitute -

“(3) Proceedings for an offence cease to be specified if at any time a magistrates’ court begins to receive evidence in those proceedings, other than evidence—

(a) received in proceedings held in the absence of the accused under section 11(1)(a) of the Magistrates’ Courts Act 1980(2) (non-appearance of accused: general provisions);

(b) read out before the court under section 12(7) of that Act (non-appearance of accused: plea of guilty); or

(c) received for the purposes of considering whether there are grounds for mitigating the normal consequences of a conviction under section 35(1) of the Road Traffic Offenders Act 1988(3) (disqualification for repeated offences).”.

(1)

S.I. 1999/904.

(2)

1980 c. 43. Section 11(1) was amended by section 54 of the Criminal Justice and Immigration Act 2008 (c. 4). Section 12 was substituted by paragraph 1 of Schedule 5 to the Criminal Justice and Public Order Act 1994 (c. 33), and subsection (7) was further amended by section 1 of the Magistrates’ Courts (Procedure) Act 1998 (c. 15).

(3)

1988 c. 53. Section 35(1) was amended by paragraph 95 of Schedule 4 to the Road Traffic Act 1991 (c. 40).