PART 29MEASURES TO ASSIST A WITNESS OR DEFENDANT TO GIVE EVIDENCE

SECTION 3: SPECIAL MEASURES DIRECTIONS

Application containing information withheld from another party

29.12.—(1) This rule applies where—

(a)an applicant serves an application for a special measures direction, or for its variation or discharge; and

(b)the application includes information that the applicant thinks ought not be revealed to another party.

(2) The applicant must—

(a)omit that information from the part of the application that is served on that other party;

(b)mark the other part to show that, unless the court otherwise directs, it is only for the court; and

(c)in that other part, explain why the applicant has withheld that information from that other party.

(3) Any hearing of an application to which this rule applies—

(a)must be in private, unless the court otherwise directs; and

(b)if the court so directs, may be, wholly or in part, in the absence of a party from whom information has been withheld.

(4) At any hearing of an application to which this rule applies—

(a)the general rule is that the court will receive, in the following sequence—

(i)representations first by the applicant and then by each other party, in all the parties’ presence, and then

(ii)further representations by the applicant, in the absence of a party from whom information has been withheld; but

(b)the court may direct other arrangements for the hearing.

[Note. See section 20 of the Youth Justice and Criminal Evidence Act 1999.]