102.This section allows a sheriff court to deal with prosecution proceedings for which it would not normally have jurisdiction where the accused has come before it having been arrested for a failure to appear in those prosecution proceedings.
103.When an accused person fails to appear in court, the court can grant a warrant for the accused’s arrest. On arrest the person will be brought before a court as soon as is practicable. That court appearance will be a form of “ancillary proceedings” within the meaning of section 5E(d) and therefore any sheriff court can deal with it by virtue of section 5B(1). The ancillary proceedings for failing to appear are separate from the main prosecution proceedings. If the person had been brought before the court that had normal territorial jurisdiction for the main prosecution proceedings, the court might have dealt with those main prosecution proceedings as well as the proceedings for the person’s failure to appear. Section 5C allows a court that has jurisdiction to deal with the ancillary proceedings to deal with the prosecution proceedings in the same way that the court with normal territorial jurisdiction would. In most cases that will mean rescheduling diets in light of a hearing having been missed when the accused failed to attend, but in the case of summary proceedings if the accused pleads guilty it may include sentencing the accused or ordering reports ahead of sentencing. The national jurisdiction granted in respect of a person’s failure to appear applies regardless of whether the main prosecution proceedings are taking place under the national jurisdiction or whether they are taking place under normal jurisdictional rules.
104.Subsection (2) provides that where the “principal proceedings” (i.e. the proceedings that the accused failed to appear at) are proceedings on indictment, the sheriff court hearing the ancillary proceedings can continue to hear those principal proceedings until the end of the diet dealing with the ancillary proceedings.
105.Subsection (3) provides that where the principal proceedings are summary criminal proceedings, the proceedings can continue to be dealt with in the same sheriff court and by any sheriff, unless, and until the end of a diet at which, a plea of not guilty by the accused is rejected. Subsection (5) defines a plea of not guilty as being rejected where the accused either tenders a plea of not guilty or adheres to a previously tendered plea of not guilty, and that plea is not accepted by the prosecutor (see paragraph 99 of these Notes).
106.However, subsection (4) provides that despite subsections (2) and (3) permitting a court to continue to deal with the proceedings, the court may only pass a sentence or otherwise dispose of the principal proceedings where—
	evidence has not been led in the principal proceedings, or
	the court considers that it would be in the interests of justice.
107.On that basis, if evidence has been led in the principal proceedings and the court does not consider that it would be in the interests of justice for it to dispose of the case, then the court’s non-territorial jurisdiction will come to an end.
Interpretation Part 1: Criminal Justice Modernisation Inserted section 5C – Jurisdiction for cases in a sheriff court after failure to appear