Courts Act 2003 ("CA 2003") 67A Meaning of "judicial office holder" and "relevant judicial function"
New section 67A defines ‘relevant judicial functions’ as meaning the functions of a court to which the general duty of the Lord Chancellor in section 1 of the CA 2003 applies and a judicial function of a person holding an office that entitles the person to exercise functions of one of the courts to which that duty applies. The courts to which the duty under section 1 applies include the Family Court, Court of Protection, High Court, magistrates’ courts and the Crown Court.
	This new section makes clear that ‘relevant judicial functions’ does not include certain functions, which are listed in the section. This means that rules of court will not be able to provide for authorised staff to be able to exercise any of these ‘excluded functions’. These are set out in section 67A as follows:
	any function involving authorising a person’s committal to prison;
any function involving authorising a person’s arrest (unless it concerns the issue of a warrant for arrest in order to secure that the person attends court proceedings and the warrant is uncontested);
making an order for repossession of a building which is occupied as a dwelling (unless the order is uncontested);
granting an injunction under section 37 of the Senior Courts Act 1981; and
making an order under section 7 of the Civil Procedure Act 1997 (order for preserving evidence etc).
	Whether authorised staff may or may not exercise other functions, beyond those prohibited in this list, will be for those making rules to decide when they make rules of court under new section 67B(1), as set out below.