Explanatory note

This Order is made under sections 64(4) and 68(3) of the Youth Justice and Criminal Evidence Act 1999 (c. 23) (“the Act”).

Section 28 provides that where a witness’s video-recorded evidence in chief has been admitted under section 27 of the Act the court may also direct that the video-recorded cross-examination of that witness may also be admitted as evidence.

Article 2 makes provision about the coming into force of section 28 of the Act on 30th December 2013, but only for the purposes of proceedings before the Crown Court sitting at Kingston-upon-Thames, Leeds, or Liverpool, and to cases in which a vulnerable witness is eligible for assistance either where he or she is under the age of 16 at the time of the hearing, or by virtue of section 16(1)(b) of the Act, owing to an incapacity.