Commentary on Sections Schedule 14: Deployment of the judiciary Section 31: Making, and use, of recordings of Supreme Court proceedings
458.The purpose of this section is to disapply the provisions relating to the prohibition on sound recording and the subsequent broadcasting of any such recordings, as contained within section 9 of the Contempt of Court Act 1981, in relation to UK Supreme Court proceedings.
459.Subsection (2) inserts new subsection (1A) into section 9 of the Contempt of Court Act 1981. Subsection (1A) disapplies the prohibition laid out in section 9(1)(b) of the Act (which prohibits the broadcast of sound recordings of legal proceedings) where a recording of UK Supreme Court proceedings is broadcast or disposed of with the leave of the Court.
460.Subsection (3) provides that the UK Supreme Court is able to grant leave to use in court, or to bring into court for use, any tape recorder or other instrument for the purpose of recording sound, subject to any conditions the UK Supreme Court considers appropriate relating to the subsequent publication or disposal of any recording.
461.Subsection (4) makes it a contempt of court to publish or dispose of any sound recording which is made in contravention of any conditions of leave granted under new subsection (1A).