The Act New section 66H of the 1998 Act: Interpretation Section 55: Extension of powers of non-legal staff
398.This section amends section 7A of the Prosecution of Offences Act 1985, which sets out the powers and rights of audience of a Crown Prosecutor which a member of staff of the CPS who is not a Crown Prosecutor may have if he or she is designated under that section by the Director of Public Prosecutions.
399.The effect of the amendments made by subsections (2) and (4) is that members of staff designated under section 7A will, in addition to their existing powers, be able to: (a) conduct trials of non-imprisonable summary offences in magistrates’ courts, (b) conduct proceedings in magistrates’ courts (other than trials) in relation to certain offences previously excluded from their remit (for example, an offence triable only on indictment or one for which the accused has elected to be tried by jury, or the court has found that it should be so tried), (c) conduct applications or other proceedings relating to “preventative civil orders”, and (d) conduct certain proceedings assigned to the Director of Public Prosecutions by the Attorney General under section 3(2)(g) of the Prosecution of Offences Act 1985 (these include proceedings on an application under section 2 of the Dogs Act 1871).
400.Subsection (3) amends subsection (5) of section 7A to make consequential changes to the definition of “bail in criminal proceedings” and to define preventative civil orders. These include restraining orders, parenting orders and other civil orders which follow criminal proceedings (such as ASBOs, drinking banning orders and football banning orders). The new subsection (5A) reproduces the existing definition of “trial” for the purposes of the section.
401.Subsection (5) inserts new subsections (8), (9) and (10) into section 7A. Subsections (8) and (9) provide that from 1 May 2011 Associate Prosecutors (formerly known as Designated Caseworkers) will cease to be exempt from the regulatory framework for persons who engage in legal activities provided for in the Legal Services Act 2007. Subsection (10) is included in case consequential amendments are required to the Legal Services Act 2007 to ensure that Associate Prosecutors can properly be catered for within the regulatory framework provided for by that Act. An order-making power (subject to the affirmative procedure) would enable appropriate modifications to be made to the 2007 Act, and if necessary other enactments (including section 7A), to this end.
402.Subsection (5) also inserts new subsections (11) and (12) into section 7A. Associate Prosecutors’ trial remit is limited through subsection (2) to non-imprisonable summary offences. The inclusion of subsections (11) and (12) provides a power that would allow the restriction on conducting proceedings in respect of imprisonable summary offences to be lifted by order (subject to affirmative procedure).
403.Subsection (6) amends section 15 of the Prosecution of Offences Act 1985 so as to enable designated members of staff to undertake binding over proceedings in the magistrates’ court.