62.12.—(1) This rule applies to a written witness statement served under rule 62.11.
(2) Such a written witness statement must contain a declaration by the person making it that it is true to the best of that person’s knowledge and belief.
[Note. By reason of sections 15 and 45 of the Senior Courts Act 1981(1), the Court of Appeal and the Crown Court each has an inherent power to imprison (for a maximum of 2 years), or fine (to an unlimited amount), or both, for contempt of court a person who, in a written witness statement to which this rule applies, makes, or causes to be made, a false statement without an honest belief in its truth. See also section 14 of the Contempt of Court Act 1981(2).]
1981 c. 49; section 14 was amended by section 65(1) of, and paragraphs 59 and 60 of Schedule 3 to, the Mental Health (Amendment) Act 1982 (c. 51), section 148 of, and paragraph 57 of Schedule 4 to, the Mental Health Act 1983 (c. 20), section 17(3) of, and Parts 1 and V of Schedule 4 to, the Criminal Justice Act 1991 (c. 53), section 65(3) and (4) of, and paragraph 6(5) of Schedule 3 to, the Criminal Justice Act 1993 (c. 36), section 165(1) of, and paragraph 84 of Schedule 9 to, the Powers of Criminal Courts (Sentencing) Act 2000 (c. 6), section 1(4) of, and paragraph 19 of Schedule 1 to, the Mental Health Act 2007 (c. 12) and it is amended by sections 6(2) and 149 of, and paragraph 25 of Schedule 4 and Part 1 of Schedule 28 to, the Criminal Justice and Immigration Act 2008 (c. 4), with effect from a date to be appointed.
