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Criminal Justice and Immigration Bill

moved Amendment No. 11: 11: Clause 41, leave out Clause 41 and insert the following new Clause— ““Power to dismiss certain appeals following references by the CCRC: England and Wales After section 16B of the Criminal Appeal Act 1968 (c. 19) insert— ““Appeals following references by the CCRC 16C Power to dismiss certain appeals following references by the CCRC (1) This section applies where there is an appeal under this Part following a reference by the Criminal Cases Review Commission under section 9(1)(a), (5) or (6) of the Criminal Appeal Act 1995 or section 1(1) of the Criminal Cases Review (Insanity) Act 1999. (2) Notwithstanding anything in section 2, 13 or 16 of this Act, the Court of Appeal may dismiss the appeal if— (a) the only ground for allowing it would be that there has been a development in the law since the date of the conviction, verdict or finding that is the subject of the appeal, and (b) the condition in subsection (3) is met. (3) The condition in this subsection is that if— (a) the reference had not been made, but (b) the appellant had made (and had been entitled to make) an application for an extension of time within which to seek leave to appeal on the ground of the development in the law, the Court would not think it appropriate to grant the application by exercising the power conferred by section 18(3).”””” The noble and learned Lord said: My Lords, we agreed on Report to bring forward these amendments, which restrict the scope of Clauses 41 and 42 to cases referred to the Court of Appeal by the Criminal Cases Review Commission. The noble and learned Lord, Lord Lloyd of Berwick, had tabled his own amendments to this effect but, as I explained then, the Government consider that the wording here, while slightly longer, is necessary to ensure precision. I trust that it may be accepted that this is not wholly within the Hunt rule on amendments. Amendment No. 11 inserts into the Criminal Appeal Act 1968 a new Section 16C. It will apply only in cases where the Court of Appeal is determining an appeal referred to it by the Criminal Cases Review Commission, and where the only ground for allowing the appeal is that there has been a development in the law since the date of conviction. In such cases, it would be open to the court to dismiss the appeal if it would have refused an extension of time within which to seek leave to appeal; if, hypothetically, the court had been considering an out-of-time application by the appellant rather than a reference by the Criminal Cases Review Commission. Amendment No. 12 makes the equivalent provision for Northern Ireland, and Amendment No. 54 makes the equivalent provision for the Armed Forces. Amendments Nos. 55 and 56 are transitional provisions. I hope that the noble and learned Lord, Lord Lloyd, will accept that the substance of his amendments is reflected in the Government’s amendments. Our joint objective is to secure that the Court of Appeal is no longer obliged automatically to quash convictions in the relevant cases. I beg to move.