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Judicial Review And Courts Act 2022

Contents

Overview of the Act

  1. The Judicial Review and Courts Act 2022 introduces reforms to Judicial Review. It also includes a number of measures to help address the backlog across criminal courts, tribunals and Coroner’s Courts and continue to modernise the delivery of justice and improve efficiency.
  2. In summary, the Act contains measures in the following areas:
    • Judicial Review
      • Gives the Courts a discretion to suspend Quashing Orders for a period of time in certain circumstances. This discretion will include a non-exhaustive list of factors to consider.
      • Gives the Courts a discretion to provide prospective-only remedies. This will include a list of non-exhaustive factors to consider.
      • Removes Cart Judicial Reviews via an ouster clause. This will remove a person’s ability to judicially review a decision of the Upper Tribunal to refuse permission to appeal from the First-tier Tribunal.
    • Criminal courts
      • Introduces a new automatic online conviction and standard statutory penalty (AOCSSP) procedure for specified summary-only non-imprisonable offences, which will give defendants who wish to plead guilty the option of having their entire case completed online without the involvement of the magistrates’ court.
      • Enables prosecutors to provide defendants who are prosecuted for summary-only offences that are also initiated by police charge (in person at a police station) with the option to indicate a plea in writing/online and proceed via the existing procedure (referred to as "pleading guilty by post") that is available under section 12 of the Magistrates’ Court Act 1980 ("the MCA 1980").
      • Clarifies that the Single Justice Procedure (SJP) applies to companies.
      • Enables magistrates’ courts to provide defendants who are prosecuted for triable either-way offences with the option to both indicate a plea and engage with the allocation decision (to decide on the most suitable mode of trial) in writing/online before they appear at the magistrates’ court for their first hearing.
      • Provides magistrates’ courts with the mechanism to bypass the allocation procedure (that is either conducted in writing/online or at a traditional hearing) for triable either-way offences by providing defendants with an earlier opportunity to elect for a jury trial at the Crown Court.
      • Enables magistrates’ courts to proceed with the plea-before-venue and allocation procedures for triable either-way offences in the absence of defendants who fail without good cause to appear at court for their hearing.
      • Enables magistrates’ courts to send indictable-only and triable either-way cases to the Crown Court for a jury trial or sentencing, without the need for a first hearing at the magistrates’ court.
      • Enables the Crown Court to remit certain cases back to a magistrates’ court for trial (where defendants consent) or for sentencing (where magistrates’ courts sentencing powers are adequate) in a wider range of circumstances.
      • Removes various statutory requirements for documents to be sent by post so that they can be served in accordance with the Criminal Procedure Rules (CrimPRs), including by electronic means via the new Common Platform.
      • Removes various statutory requirements to hold hearings in court in order to determine applications for a witness summons or the lifting of reporting restrictions, so that decisions can be made on the papers instead in accordance with the CrimPRs.
      • Removes the jurisdictional boundaries of magistrates’ courts, known as local justice areas (LJAs), which currently restrict work and magistrates from being moved easily between magistrates’ courts in different areas.
      • Enables the maximum custodial sentence which can be imposed by the magistrates’ court for a single triable either-way offence to be varied between 6 and 12 months.
    • Online Procedure Rule Committee
      • Establishes a framework for Online Procedure Rules, made by a new Online Procedure Rule Committee (OPRC or ‘the Committee’), to enable parties to civil, family or tribunal proceedings to use the online procedure. The rules are to apply to proceedings specified in regulations made by the Lord Chancellor. The Government expects the Committee to focus on the civil and family jurisdictions in the first instance.
      • Makes provision for the membership of the OPRC and its scope and remit, including the procedure for appointing members.
      • Enables the Lord Chancellor to alter the composition of the OPRC by regulations, made with the concurrence of the Lord Chief Justice and the Senior President of Tribunals and after consultation of other senior judicial office holders, in order to assist in making of new online rules. The OPRC itself will be independent and will be made up of members of the judiciary and members with expertise in the lay advice sector and IT.
      • Prescribes the process for making Online Procedure Rules: rules must be signed by at least half of the members of the Committee, including the chair, or a majority of the members of the Committee in any other case (the committee will be made up of 6 members) before being submitted to the Lord Chancellor or Secretary of State for approval.
      • Confers power on the Lord Chancellor to require the OPRC to make online rules to achieve a specified purpose and/or within a reasonable period in accordance with the prescribed procedures for making rules.
      • Permits the Lord Chancellor to make amendments to other legislation which are necessary or desirable in order to facilitate the making of, or are consequential on, Online Procedure Rules.
      • Gives greater flexibility to the Online Procedure Rule Committee when it comes to establishing standards relating to dispute resolution conducted online before court proceedings are initiated.
    • Employment Tribunals
      • Transfers the responsibility for the making of Employment Tribunals (ETs) procedure regulations and Employment Appeal Tribunal (EAT) rules from the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (SoS BEIS) and the Lord Chancellor respectively to the Tribunal Procedure Committee (TPC), as a power to make unified Employment Tribunal Procedure Rules equivalent to the TPC's rule making power under the Tribunals, Courts and Enforcement Act 2007.
      • Provides for two additional members to be appointed to the TPC to ensure expertise in employment matters: an employment judge to be appointed by the Lord Chief Justice and an employment practitioner to be appointed by the Lord Chancellor.
      • Allows for the delegation of judicial functions in the ETs and the EAT to authorised case officers on a similar basis to the First-tier Tribunal and Upper Tribunal.
      • Makes the Lord Chancellor responsible for laying down the statutory framework governing composition of the employment tribunals and EAT. The Senior President of Tribunals will be responsible for determining composition in individual cases. This aligns the procedure with the procedure in the First-tier Tribunal and Upper Tribunal.
      • Transfers responsibility for the remuneration of ET judges from the SoS BEIS to the Lord Chancellor.
    • Coroner’s Courts
      • Allows virtual hearings in coroners’ courts ("Virtual hearings").
      • Allows a coroner to discontinue an investigation where the cause of death becomes clear (i.e. by natural causes), without a post-mortem examination ("Discontinuing investigations where cause of death becomes clear").
      • Allows inquests to proceed without a hearing in non-contentious cases ("Inquests without a hearing in non-contentious cases").
      • Removes the requirement (on a temporary basis) for an inquest with a jury in relation to a death where COVID-19 (a notifiable disease) is suspected to be the cause ("No requirement for jury at inquest where coronavirus suspected"), with power to review and extend this provision after 2 years.
      • Allows the merger of coroner areas within a local authority where the new coroner area would not be the entire local authority area ("Merger of coroner areas").
      • Enables registrars to request information from coroners to facilitate a registration where the coroner has discontinued an investigation and issued their authority for a burial or cremation to take place and a qualified informant is subsequently unable or unwilling to come forward to register.
    • City of London Courthouses
      • Amends existing primary legislation regarding provision of courthouses to HM Courts & Tribunals Service (HMCTS) by the City of London Corporation. HMCTS and the City of London have reached agreement on a scheme where two courthouses and accommodation are to be closed and replaced by a new combined courthouse and accommodation on a different site. The new court building will replace the ageing Mayor’s and City of London Court and the City of London Magistrates’ Court with new and modern facilities. The new court will also provide two additional county and eight Crown courts, a total of 18 hearing rooms. Technical changes to legislation are required to revoke provisions which currently place duties on the Corporation to provide county and magistrates court capacity at the current locations.
    • Pro bono representation in courts and tribunals:
      • Allows pro bono costs orders to be made in the First-Tier Tribunal, the Upper Tribunal, an employment tribunal, the Employment Appeal Tribunal and the Competition Appeal Tribunal. It also creates a power for the Lord Chancellor to add further tribunals through secondary legislation.

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