Time limits for prosecution of offences
69.—(1) Any information relating to an offence under these Regulations which is triable by a magistrates' court in England and Wales may be so tried on an information laid at any time within 12 months after the date on which evidence sufficient in the opinion of the relevant authority to justify the proceedings comes to its knowledge.
(2) Proceedings in Scotland for an offence triable only summarily which is alleged to have been committed under these Regulations may be commenced at any time within 12 months after the date on which evidence sufficient in the Lord Advocate’s opinion to justify the proceedings came to his knowledge or, where such evidence was reported to him by the Secretary of State or SIB, within 12 months after the date on which it came to the knowledge of the Secretary of State or SIB (as the case may be).
For the purposes of this paragraph proceedings shall be deemed to be commenced on the date on which a warrant to apprehend or to cite the accused is granted, if the warrant is executed without undue delay.
(3) Paragraph (1) above does not authorise the trial of an information laid, and paragraph (2) does not authorise the commencement of proceedings, more than three years after the commission of the offence.
(4) For the purposes of these Regulations a certificate by the relevant authority or the Lord Advocate as to the date on which such evidence as is referred to above came to its or his knowledge is conclusive evidence of that fact.
(5) Nothing in this regulation affects proceedings within the time limits prescribed by section 127(1) of the Magistrates' Courts Act 1980(1) or section 136 of the Criminal Procedure (Scotland) Act 1995(2) (the usual time limits for criminal proceedings).
(6) In this regulation “relevant authority”, in relation to an offence, means—
(a)in a case where the person instituting proceedings in respect of the offence is a person who, by virtue of regulation 67(1) or (2) above, may not do so without the consent of the Secretary of State or the Director of Public Prosecutions, the Secretary of State or the Director of Public Prosecutions; and
(b)in any other case where proceedings are instituted in England and Wales, the person instituting the proceedings.