The House was asked whether section 127 was satisfied where the information was laid within 6 months from the date of the alleged offence but was not considered by a magistrate, and no summons was issued, until after the expiration of the time limit. The House also considered the power of delegation where a justice of the peace or the clerk did not personally receive or consider the information in question.
Held: It was satisfied.
Lord Roskill said: ‘My Lords, perusal of these and other sections which I have not thought it necessary to set out, make two matters abundantly clear. First, in the criminal jurisdiction, what magistrates’ courts have jurisdiction to try summarily is an information, and what is required to give them that jurisdiction is that an information has been laid before them . . Their jurisdiction in criminal cases does not depend on a summons or a warrant being issued and their civil jurisdiction does not depend upon a summons being issued. As to the former, as was pointed out in argument, where a defendant is brought before a magistrates’ court next morning, there is neither a summons nor a warrant. He is charged. The information is thus laid before the magistrates’ court at the latest when the charge is read in open court, and in practice, often earlier when, no doubt, the clerk to the justices, or his or her subordinate, is informed by the police of the charge which it is proposed to bring against the defendant later that morning . . My Lords, it is of crucial importance to appreciate that the laying of an information is a matter for the prosecution just as the making of a complaint is a matter for the complainant. In each case it is for the prosecutor or the complainant to decide how the information or how the complaint shall be formulated. I agree with the Divisional Court in the present cases that the commencement of criminal proceedings lies in the hands of the prosecutor. It is, in my opinion, the prosecutor’s duty, if he wishes to prosecute, to prepare and lay the information before the magistrates’ court, which means a justice of the peace or the clerk to the justices . . Accordingly, once the information has been received at the office of the clerk to the justices, which today in most cases is likely to be at the magistrates’ court house, the information will, in my view, have been laid. No more is required of the prosecutor to launch the intended criminal proceedings . . it is the laying of an information . . which is the foundation of the magistrates’ court’s jurisdiction to try an information summarily . . and not the issue of any summons which may or may not follow the laying of an information or the making of a complaint.’
Lord Roskill
[1983] 1 AC 328, [1982] 3 WLR 331, (1982) 146 JP 348, [1982] 2 All ER 963, [1982] Crim LR 755, (1982) 75 Cr App R 346, [1982] 2 All ER 963
Magistrates Courts Act 1980 127
England and Wales
Citing:
Approved – Regina v Hughes 1879
Baron Huddleston said that: ‘objections and defects in the form of procuring the appearance of a party charged will be cured by appearance.’
Hawkins J said: ‘The information, which is in the nature of an indictment, of necessity precedes the . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.
Costs, Magistrates, Criminal Practice
Leading Case
Updated: 01 November 2021; Ref: scu.197894
