2015 No. 326
Legal Aid And Advice, England And Wales

The Criminal Legal Aid (General) (Amendment) Regulations 2015

Made
Laid before Parliament
Coming into force
The Lord Chancellor makes the following Regulations1 in exercise of the powers conferred by sections 14(h), 41(1) and (3) of the Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Act 20122.

Citation, commencement and interpretation1.

(1)

These Regulations may be cited as the Criminal Legal Aid (General) (Amendment) Regulations 2015 and come into force on 23rd March 2015.

(2)

In these Regulations—

“the 1998 Act” means the Crime and Disorder Act 19983;
“the 2003 Act” means the Sexual Offences Act 20034, and
“the General Regulations” means the Criminal Legal Aid (General) Regulations 20135.

Amendment to Regulation 9 of the General Regulations2.

(1)

Regulation 9 (criminal proceedings) of the General Regulations is amended as follows.

(2)

Omit sub-paragraphs (d) and (e).

(3)

For sub-paragraph (f) substitute—

“(f)

proceedings in relation to parenting orders made under section 8(1)(b) of the Crime and Disorder Act 19986 where an order under section 22 of the Anti-social Behaviour, Crime and Policing Act 20147 or a sexual harm prevention order under section 103A of the Sexual Offences Act 20038 is made;”.

(4)

For sub-paragraph (k) substitute—

“(k)

proceedings under sections 80, 82, 83 and 84 of the Anti-social Behaviour, Crime and Policing Act 2014 in relation to closure orders made under section 80(5)(a) of that Act where a person has engaged in, or is likely to engage in behaviour that constitutes a criminal offence on the premises;”.

(5)

For sub-paragraph (n) substitute—

“(n)

proceedings under sections 103A, 103E, 103F and 103H of the Sexual Offences Act 20039 in relation to sexual harm prevention orders;”.

(6)

Omit sub-paragraph (o).

(7)

For sub-paragraph (p) substitute—

“(p)

proceedings under sections 122A, 122D, 122E and 122G of the Sexual Offences Act 200310 in relation to sexual risk orders;”.

(8)

Omit sub-paragraph (q).

Transitional provision3.

(1)

The amendments made by Regulation 2 do not apply to a determination under section 15 (advice and assistance for criminal proceedings) or section 16 (representation for criminal proceedings) of the Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Act 2012 for advice and assistance or representation for relevant criminal proceedings.

(2)

For the purposes of paragraph (1), “relevant criminal proceedings” means the following criminal proceedings whenever commenced under—

(a)

sections 1, 1D and 4 of the 1998 Act11 in relation to anti-social behaviour orders;

(b)

sections 1G and 1H of the 1998 Act12 in relation to intervention orders, in which an application for an anti-social behaviour order has been made;

(c)

section 8(1)(b) of the 1998 Act in relation to parenting orders made where an anti-social behaviour order or a sex offender order is made in respect of a child;

(d)

sections 2, 5 and 6 of the Anti-social Behaviour Act 200313 in relation to closure orders;

(e)

sections 104, 108, 109 and 110 of the 2003 Act14 in relation to sexual offences prevention orders and interim sexual offences prevention orders;

(f)

sections 114, 118 and 119 of the 2003 Act15 in relation to foreign travel orders;

(g)

sections 123 and 125 to 127 of the 2003 Act16 in relation to risk of sexual harm orders and interim risk of sexual harm orders, and

(h)

sections 3, 5, 9 and 10 of the Violent Crime Reduction Act 200617 in relation to drinking banning orders and interim drinking banning orders.
Shailesh Vara
Parliamentary Under Secretary of State
Ministry of Justice
EXPLANATORY NOTE
(This note is not part of the Regulations)

These Regulations amend regulation 9 (criminal proceedings) of the Criminal Legal Aid (General) Regulations 2013 (S.I. 2013/9) (“the General Regulations”). Regulation 9 of the General Regulations makes provision about the proceedings which constitute criminal proceedings for the purposes of Part 1 of the Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Act 2012 (c. 10) (“the 2012 Act”).

The Anti-social Behaviour, Crime and Policing Act 2014 (c. 12) (“the Act”) repeals the legislation relating to certain types of orders relating to anti-social behaviour and sexual offences and introduces certain new orders.

Regulation 2 makes necessary consequential amendments to regulation 9 of the General Regulations to prescribe as criminal the new proceedings introduced by the Act. The effect of these amendments is that the proceedings relating to the following orders are to be treated as ‘criminal’ for the purposes of the 2012 Act. These are closure orders relating to criminal behaviour under section 80 of the Act, sexual harm prevention orders under sections 103A of the Sexual Offences Act 2003 (c. 42) and sexual risk orders under section 122A of that Act.

Regulation 3 provides that the amendments made in Regulation 2 do not apply to determinations for criminal legal aid which relate to criminal proceedings under the legislation which has been repealed.

A full regulatory impact assessment has not been produced for this instrument as no impact on the private or voluntary sectors is foreseen.