{
  "url": "https://openlegislation.uk/northern-ireland-sentences-act-1998-sentence-review-commissioners-rules-1998/article-4",
  "json_url": "https://openlegislation.uk/northern-ireland-sentences-act-1998-sentence-review-commissioners-rules-1998/article-4.json",
  "legislation": "uksi/1998/1859",
  "legislation_title": "The Northern Ireland (Sentences) Act 1998 (Sentence Review Commissioners) Rules 1998",
  "legislation_url": "https://openlegislation.uk/northern-ireland-sentences-act-1998-sentence-review-commissioners-rules-1998",
  "path": "article/4",
  "kind": "article",
  "number": "4",
  "heading": "Allocation of cases to and functions of panels of Commissioners",
  "text": "(1) The Chairman, or a Commissioner acting on his behalf, shall allocate each case to a panel of three Commissioners.\n(2) The panel shall perform the following functions on behalf of the Commissioner:\n(a) hold hearings;\n(b) determine ancillary appeals;\n(c) take ancillary decisions;\n(d) give the preliminary indication; and\n(e) make the substantive determination.\n(3) On appointing a panel, the Chairman, or the Commissioner acting on his behalf, shall nominate one of the panel members to act as its chairman, unless the Chairman is himself a member of the panel, in which case he shall act as the chairman of the panel.\n(4) Where the person concerned is a life prisoner, the Chairman, or the Commissioner acting on his behalf, shall ensure that the case is allocated to a panel at least one of whose members is a psychiatrist or a psychologist.\n(5) The single Commissioner to whom a case is allocated shall be eligible to sit as a member of the panel for that case, save that where he takes an ancillary decision he shall not sit as a member of the panel determining any ancillary appeal against that decision.\n(6) Any decision of a majority of the members of the panel shall be the decision of the Commissioner.\n(7) If a member of the panel to whom a case has been allocated is unavailable, the Chairman, or a Commissioner acting on his behalf, may nominate another Commissioner to take his place if he considers that that is necessary to ensure that the case is processed expeditiously.",
  "extent": null,
  "status": null,
  "version": "current",
  "annotations": [],
  "outstanding_effects": [],
  "provenance": {
    "source": "legislation.gov.uk",
    "source_url": "https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/1998/1859/article/4",
    "retrieved_at": "2026-10-29T11:24:20.837946+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."
}