Article 6 Variation and discharge of sex offender orders and interim sex offender orders
This rule applies to the making of an application for the variation or discharge of a sex offender order or an interim sex offender order.
The application shall be made in writing to the appropriate court and shall specify the reason why the applicant believes the court should vary or discharge the order, as the case may be.
Where the court considers that there are no grounds on which it might conclude that the order should be varied or discharged, as the case may be, it may determine the application without hearing representations from the applicant or any other person.
In all other circumstances, the Justices' Chief Executive shall, unless the application is withdrawn, fix a date for the hearing of the application which shall not be earlier than fourteen days from the date on which it is fixed, and he shall issue a summons notifying the parties in writing of that date.
The Justices' Chief Executive shall send with the summons a copy of the application to the recipients of that summons, apart from the applicant.
Where, after a hearing of the application, the court either dismisses the application, varies the order or discharges it by further order, the Justices' Chief Executive shall send a copy of the order containing its decision to each of the recipients of the summons under paragraph (4).
In this rule—
“the application” means an application referred to in paragraph (1) and “the applicant” shall be construed accordingly;
“the appropriate court” means—
the court which made the order; or
in the case of a sex offender order only, any magistrates' court whose commission area includes any part of the police area of the applicant or of any other relevant chief officer of police; and
“relevant chief officer of police” means a chief officer of police who believes that the defendant is in, or is intending to come to, his police area.