Judicial Review and Courts Bill — Clause 9 — Powers to Proceed if Accused Absent from Allocation Hearing — 25 Jan 2022 at 18:08

The majority of MPs voted to allow Magistrates' Courts to make a decision on if to refer a case involving a child defendant to the Crown Court in the absence of the defendant in a wider range of circumstances.

MPs were considering the Judicial Review and Courts Bill.^[1][2][3]

The amendment rejected in this vote was:

• Amendment 22, page 26, line 1, leave out subsection (5).

The rejected amendment was accompanied by the following explanatory statement from its proposer:

• This amendment would remove cases involving children and young people from the provisions of clause 9.

The rejected amendment would have impacted Clause 9 of the Bill which was titled: Powers to proceed if accused absent from allocation hearing and provided for a Magistrates' Court hearing to consider if a case should be sent to the Court or Crown Court to be held in the absence of the accused in a wider set of circumstances than previously.

Subclause 5 of Clause 9 which the rejected amendment sought to remove provided for a new clause 24BA Power to proceed if child or young person absent from plea and allocation hearing to be inserted into the Magistrates' Courts Act 1980. This subclause provided for the application of many of the provisions to child defendants.

The explanatory notes for the new clause which subclause 5 provided for states (with links and formatting added)^[3]:

• New subsection 24BA(1) of the MCA 1980 provides overarching safeguards that specify the court can only proceed to allocate the offence in the absence of a child or young person in accordance with new section 24BA where:
• a hearing is being held for the purpose of subsection 24A(2) of the MCA 1980;
• the child or young person has not appeared at the hearing; the child or young person has failed to provide a written/online indication of plea in accordance with new section 24ZA of the MCA 1980;
• it is either satisfied that notice has been served on the defendant in good time or the defendant has appeared at court on a previous occasion to answer the charge; the court considers there is no acceptable reason for the child or young person’s failure to appear; and
• the court is satisfied that it would not be contrary to the interests of justice for the hearing to proceed in the child or young person’s absence.

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• [1] Parliament's webpage on the Judicial Review and Courts Bill, Parliament.uk
• [2] Judicial Review and Courts Bill as amended in committee, 23 November 2021, Parliament.uk
• [3] Explanatory notes to the Judicial Review and Courts Bill as introduced, 27 July 2021, Parliament.uk

Debate in Parliament |