Practice Directions

Crime: Voluntary Bills of Indictment

1. Section 2(2)(b) of the Administration of Justice (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 1933 allows the preferment of a bill of indictment by the direction or with the consent of a judge of the High Court. Bills so preferred are known as voluntary bills.

2. Applications for such consent must not only comply with each paragraph of the Indictments (Procedure) Rules 1971 but must also be accompanied by (a) a copy of any charges on which the defendant has been committed for trial; (b) a copy of any charges on which his committal for trial was refused by the magistrates' court; (c) a copy of any existing indictment which has been preferred in consequence of his committal; (d) a summary of the evidence or other document which (i) identifies the counts in the proposed indictment on which he has been committed for trial (or which are substantially the same as charges on which he has been so committed), and (ii) in relation to each other count in the proposed indictment, identifies the pages in the accompanying statements and exhibits where the essential evidence said to support that count is to be found; (e) marginal markings of the relevant passages on the pages of the statements and exhibits identified under 2(d)(ii) above. These requirements should be complied with in relation to each defendant named in the indictment for which consent is sought, whether or not it is proposed to prefer any new count against him.

3. The preferment of a voluntary bill is an exceptional procedure. Consent should only be granted where good reason to depart from the normal procedure is clearly shown and only where the interests of justice, rather than considerations of administrative convenience, require it.

4. Neither the 1933 Act nor the 1971 Rules expressly require a prosecuting authority applying for consent to the preferment of a voluntary bill to give notice of the application to the prospective defendant or to serve on him a copy of documents delivered to the judge; nor is it expressly required that the prospective defendant have any opportunity to make any submissions to the judge, whether in writing or orally.

5. The prosecuting authorities for England and Wales are today issuing revised guidance to prosecutors on the procedures to be adopted in seeking judicial consent to the preferment of voluntary bills. These procedures will direct prosecutors

(1) on the making of application for consent to preferment of a voluntary bill, forthwith to give notice to the prospective defendant that such application has been made;

(2) at about the same time, to serve on the prospective defendant a copy of all the documents delivered to the judge (save to the extent that these have already been served on him);

(3) to inform the prospective defendant that he may make submissions in writing to the judge provided that he does so within 9 working days of the giving of notice under (1) above.

Prosecutors will be directed that these procedures should be followed unless there are good grounds for not doing so, in which case prosecutors will inform the judge that the procedures have not been followed and seek his leave to dispense with all or any of them. Judges should not give leave to dispense unless good grounds are shown.

6. A judge to whom application for consent to the preferment of a voluntary bill is made will of course wish to consider carefully the documents submitted by the prosecutor and any written submissions timeously made by the prospective defendant, and may properly seek any necessary amplification. The judge may invite oral submissions from either party, or accede to a request for an opportunity to make such oral submissions, if the judge considers it necessary or desirable to receive such oral submissions in order to make a sound and fair decision on the application. Any such oral submissions should be made on notice to the other party, who should be allowed to attend.

7. This practice direction will take effect on 2 August 1999. With effect from that date Practice Direction (Crime: Voluntary Bills) [1990] 1 WLR 1633, (1991) 92 Cr. App. R 146 is revoked.

Lord Chief Justice of England and Wales
29 July 1999