{
  "url": "https://openlegislation.uk/northern-ireland-emergency-provisions-act-1978-repealed-2781991/section-1",
  "json_url": "https://openlegislation.uk/northern-ireland-emergency-provisions-act-1978-repealed-2781991/section-1.json",
  "legislation": "ukpga/1978/5",
  "legislation_title": "Northern Ireland (Emergency Provisions) Act 1978 (Repealed 27.8.1991)",
  "legislation_url": "https://openlegislation.uk/northern-ireland-emergency-provisions-act-1978-repealed-2781991",
  "path": "section/1",
  "kind": "section",
  "number": "1",
  "heading": "Preliminary enquiry into scheduled offences.",
  "text": "(1) Where in any proceedings before a magistrates’ court for a scheduled offence (not being an extra-territorial offence as defined in section 1(3) of the Criminal Jurisdiction Act 1975) the prosecutor requests the court to conduct a preliminary enquiry into the offence under the Magistrates’ Courts (Northern Ireland) Order 1981, the court shall, notwithstanding anything in Article 31 of that Order of 1981, conduct a preliminary enquiry into the offence unless the court is of opinion that in the interests of justice a preliminary investigation should be conducted into the offence under that Order of 1981.\n(2) Where in any proceedings a person charged with a scheduled offence is also charged with another offence which is not a scheduled offence, that other offence shall be treated as a scheduled offence for the purposes of subsection (1) above.",
  "extent": "N.I.",
  "status": null,
  "version": "current",
  "annotations": [
    {
      "type": "F",
      "label": "F1",
      "text": "Words substituted by S.I. 1981/1675 (N.I. 26), art. 170(2), Sch. 6 Pt. I, para. 48(a)"
    },
    {
      "type": "F",
      "label": "F2",
      "text": "Words substituted by S.I. 1981/1675 (N.I. 26), art. 170(2), Sch. 6 Pt. I, para. 48(b)"
    },
    {
      "type": "F",
      "label": "F3",
      "text": "Words substituted by S.I. 1981/1675 (N.I. 26), art. 170(2), Sch. 6 Pt. I, para. 48(c)"
    },
    {
      "type": "M",
      "label": "M1",
      "text": "1975 c. 59."
    },
    {
      "type": "M",
      "label": "M2",
      "text": "1981/1675"
    }
  ],
  "outstanding_effects": [],
  "provenance": {
    "source": "legislation.gov.uk",
    "source_url": "https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1978/5/section/1",
    "retrieved_at": "2026-10-29T10:23:13.600183+00:00"
  },
  "licence": "Open Government Licence v3.0",
  "licence_url": "https://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/doc/open-government-licence/version/3/",
  "attribution": "Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Source: legislation.gov.uk, The National Archives."
}