Explanatory note

The Civil Procedure Rules 1998 include, in Schedules 1 and 2 respectively, rules from the former Rules of the Supreme Court 1965 and the County Court Rules 1981 which still apply to claims. The primary purpose of these amending Rules is to replace some of the provisions of the earlier rules relating to the enforcement of judgments and orders with new Parts 70 to 73 of the Civil Procedure Rules 1998. The new Part 70 contains general rules about enforcement. The new Parts 71 to 73 will provide new procedures governing, respectively, orders to obtain information from judgment debtors (known as oral examinations under the earlier rules), third party debt orders (known as garnishee orders under the earlier rules), and charging orders, stop orders and stop notices. The previous rules are revoked and there are many consequential amendments.

The new Parts inserted into the Civil Procedure Rules 1998 by these amending Rules are numbered Parts 70 to 73, leaving unused for the time being Part numbers 58 to 69. These Part numbers will be allocated to other new rules which are currently under consideration by the Civil Procedure Rule Committee.

Additionally a new rule is made authorising practice directions to be made which modify or disapply any provisions of the Civil Procedure Rules 1998 during the operation of pilot schemes for assessing the use of new practices and procedures in connection with proceedings.

The opportunity has also been taken to make a number of minor amendments to the rules currently in force, including amendments to CCR Order 49, rule 6B consequential on the coming into force of the remaining provisions of section 155 of the Housing Act 1996 (arrest and remand).