Rule 6 Amendments to the Criminal Procedure Rules 2013

in paragraph (5), for ‘deals with more than one offence alleged against the same defendant, it must deal with them’ substitute ‘deals with two or more offences alleged against the same defendant, the court must deal with those offences’, and

after paragraph (5) insert—

“(6)

Where the court on the same occasion deals with two or more defendants charged jointly with an offence that can be tried in the Crown Court then in the following sequence—

(a)

the court must explain, in terms each defendant can understand (with help, if necessary), that if the court sends one of them to the Crown Court for trial then the court must send for trial in the Crown Court, too, any other of them—

(i)

who is charged with the same offence as the defendant sent for trial, or with an offence which the court decides is related to that offence,

(ii)

who does not wish to plead guilty to each offence with which he or she is charged, and

(iii)

(if that other defendant is under 18, and the court would not otherwise have sent him or her for Crown Court trial) where the court decides that sending is necessary in the interests of justice

even if the court by then has decided to allocate that other defendant for magistrates’ court trial; and

(b)

the court may ask the defendants questions to help it decide in what order to deal with them.

(7)

After following paragraph (5), if it applies, where the court on the same occasion—

(a)

deals with two or more defendants charged jointly with an offence that can be tried in the Crown Court;

(b)

allocates any of them to a magistrates’ court for trial; and

(c)

then sends another one of them to the Crown Court for trial,

the court must deal again with each one whom, on that occasion, it has allocated for magistrates’ court trial.”;