(1)Each commission area shall be the district of a district court, and the places at which a district court sits and, subject to section 8 of this Act, the days and times when it sits at any given place, shall be determined by the local authority; and in determining where and when a district court should sit, the local authority shall have regard to the desirability of minimising the expense and inconvenience occasioned to those directly involved, whether as parties or witnesses, in the proceedings before the court.
(2)The jurisdiction and powers of the district court shall be exercisable by a stipendiary magistrate or by one or more justices, and no decision of the court shall be questioned on the ground that it was not constituted as required by this subsection unless objection was taken on that ground by or on behalf of a party to the proceedings not later than the time when the proceedings or the alleged irregularity began.
(3)All prosecutions in a commission area shall proceed at the instance of the procurator fiscal.
(4)The procurator fiscal for an area which includes a commission area shall have all the powers and privileges conferred on a district prosecutor by section 6 of the M1District Courts (Scotland) Act 1975.
(5)The prosecutions authorised by the said Act of 1975 under complaint by the procurator fiscal shall be without prejudice to complaints at the instance of any other person entitled to make the same.
(6)In this section—
“commission area” means the area of a local authority;
“justice” means a justice of the peace appointed or deemed to have been appointed under section 9 of the said Act of 1975; and
“local authority” means a council constituted under section 2 of the M2Local Government (Scotland) Act 1994.
(1)A district court shall continue to have all the jurisdiction and powers exercisable by it at the commencement of this Act.
(2)Where several offences, which if committed in one commission area could be tried under one complaint, are alleged to have been committed in different commission areas, proceedings may be taken for all or any of those offences under one complaint before the district court of any one of such commission areas, and any such offence may be dealt with, heard, tried, determined, adjudged and punished as if the offence had been wholly committed within the jurisdiction of that court.
(3)Except in so far as any enactment (including this Act or an enactment passed after this Act) otherwise provides, it shall be competent for a district court to try any statutory offence which is triable summarily.
(4)It shall be competent, whether or not the accused has been previously convicted of an offence inferring dishonest appropriation of property, for any of the following offences to be tried in the district court—
(a)theft or reset of theft;
(b)falsehood, fraud or wilful imposition;
(c)breach of trust or embezzlement,
where (in any such case) the amount concerned does not exceed level 4 on the standard scale.
(5)A district court when constituted by a stipendiary magistrate shall, in addition to the jurisdiction and powers mentioned in subsection (1) above, have the summary criminal jurisdiction and powers of a sheriff.
(6)The district court shall, without prejudice to any other or wider powers conferred by statute, be entitled on convicting of a common law offence—
(a)to impose imprisonment for any period not exceeding 60 days;
(b)to impose a fine not exceeding level 4 on the standard scale;
(c)to ordain the accused (in lieu of or in addition to such imprisonment or fine) to find caution for good behaviour for any period not exceeding six months and to an amount not exceeding level 4 on the standard scale;
(d)failing payment of such fine or on failure to find such caution, to award imprisonment in accordance with section 219 of this Act,
but in no case shall the total period of imprisonment imposed in pursuance of this subsection exceed 60 days.
(7)Without prejudice to any other or wider power conferred by any enactment, it shall not be competent for a district court, as respects any statutory offence—
(a)to impose a sentence of imprisonment for a period exceeding 60 days;
(b)to impose a fine of an amount exceeding level 4 on the standard scale; or
(c)to ordain an accused person to find caution for any period exceeding six months or to an amount exceeding level 4 on the standard scale.
(8)The district court shall not have jurisdiction to try or to pronounce sentence in the case of any person—
(a)found within its jurisdiction, and brought before it accused or suspected of having committed any offence at any place beyond its jurisdiction; or
(b)brought before it accused or suspected of having committed within its jurisdiction any of the following offences—
(i)murder, culpable homicide, robbery, rape, wilful fire-raising, or attempted wilful fire-raising;
(ii)theft by housebreaking, or housebreaking with intent to steal;
(iii)theft or reset, falsehood fraud or wilful imposition, breach of trust or embezzlement, where the value of the property is an amount exceeding level 4 on the standard scale;
(iv)assault causing the fracture of a limb, assault with intent to ravish, assault to the danger of life, or assault by stabbing;
(v)uttering forged documents or uttering forged bank or banker’s notes, or offences under the Acts relating to coinage.
(9)Without prejudice to subsection (8) above, where either in the preliminary investigation or in the course of the trial of any offence it appears that the offence is one which—
(a)cannot competently be tried in the court before which an accused is brought; or
(b)in the opinion of the court in view of the circumstances of the case, should be dealt with by a higher court,
the court may take cognizance of the offence and commit the accused to prison for examination for any period not exceeding four days.
(10)Where an accused is committed as mentioned in subsection (9) above, the prosecutor in the court which commits the accused shall forthwith give notice of the committal to the procurator fiscal of the district within which the offence was committed or to such other official as is entitled to take cognizance of the offence in order that the accused may be dealt with according to law.