UK Offence Report

Single justice procedure: special rules

rule 24.9(1)(a) of The Criminal Procedure Rules 2025

This offence was read from the text as made, and no revised version was available, so a later revocation could not be ruled out. Check the current text at legislation.gov.uk.

What the provision says

a the offence alleged—

i can be tried only in

a magistrates’ court, and

ii is not one punishable with imprisonment;

Text as made, from legislation.gov.uk. © Crown copyright, reused under the Open Government Licence v3.0. This is the text as originally made; later amendments are not shown here.

Who it binds, and what has to be proved

Binds
a person
Conduct
breaching the provision
Fault element
Strict liability
Burden of proof
No statutory defence — prosecution proves everything

The prosecution must prove that the conduct happened. This is a strict liability offence as drafted: the provision uses no word of intention, knowledge, recklessness or negligence, so there is no need to show that a person meant to do it, knew about it, or was careless.

Intention, knowledge and carelessness are irrelevant to guilt. They may still matter a great deal to sentence.

The provision states no defence, so the prosecution bears the burden on every element of the offence.

Classifier’s reasoning: no word of intention, knowledge, recklessness or negligence in the offence or its provision.

What would breach rule 24.9(1)(a)?

These are illustrations, not law. They are generated from the provision’s own words to show the shape of the offence. Whether any particular conduct is caught depends on the full text, on any amendment since, and on the facts.

  1. Doing what the provision prohibits, or failing to do what it requires under the Criminal Procedure Rules 2025.

Penalty

Mode of trial
Not determined
Maximum fine
Not determined
Maximum prison (summary)
Not determined

no penalty is stated in this instrument; it may be in the enabling Act, or in a general penalties provision this pass did not connect to the offence.

No penalty was determined from this instrument. It may be in the enabling Act, or in a general penalties provision this pass did not connect to the offence. Absence of a figure here is not evidence that the offence carries no penalty.

Sentencing

Offences of this kind are usually sentenced under the guidelines below. This is a mapping by subject, not a finding about this provision, and the links go to a search of the Sentencing Council’s own site.

Prosecution figures

No published per-offence figure was found for this provision, and it could not be matched to a Ministry of Justice offence code. Offences created by statutory instrument very largely do not have one. Absence of a figure is not evidence that the offence is unused.

Status and lifecycle

Current status
Status not determined
Made
15 July 2025
In force from
6 October 2025
Extent
Not stated

How this was established: read from the text as made; no revised version available, so later revocation could not be ruled out.

What the instrument is for

(This note is not part of the Rules) — the explanatory note published with the instrument, © Crown copyright.

The Criminal Procedure Rules 2025: a revoke the Criminal Procedure Rules 2020, S.I. 2020/759, with the amendments made to those Rules by S.I. 2021/40, 2021/849, 2022/45, 2022/815, 2023/44, 2023/786, 2024/62, 2024/842 and 2025/60; b consolidate and replace the provision made by those rules; and c include the further rule amendments listed beneath. Rule Amendment Part 2 Rule 2.1 is amended to provide for the transition from the Criminal Procedure Rules 2020 to the Criminal Procedure Rules 2025. Transitional provisions for some applications to authorise extensions of pre-charge bail that were included in the Criminal Procedure Rules 2020 are omitted. Rule 2.7 is amended to allow an authorised court officer in the Crown Court to amend a community order or a suspended sentence order where a probation officer has allowed an offender to change the local justice area in which they reside. Part 3 Rule 3.2 is amended to remove the implication that the court may direct a reporting or access restriction only on an application. Rules 3.16 and 3.21 are amended to require routine consideration of reporting and comparable restrictions during preparation for trial. Part 5 Rules 5.8 and 5.11 are amended to remove the implication that the court may withhold information only by reason of a reporting restriction. Part 6 Rule 6.2 is amended to ensure that a prospective court reporter is recognised as a person directly affected by a reporting restriction. Rules 6.4 and 6.5 are amended to accommodate arrangements that facilitate notice to such a reporter of an application for a reporting restriction. Part 17 The notes to rules 17.1 and 17.2 are rearranged and expanded to refer to every statutory provision to which those rules now refer. Rule 17.2 is amended to refer to each statutory provision under which a proposed witness may be summoned or brought to court to give evidence. Rule 17.3 is amended to apply to the issue of a summons or warrant requiring a proposed witness to attend court to make a deposition under the Crime and Disorder Act 1998. Rule 17.8 is added to provide for the taking of such a deposition. Part 24 Rule 24.2 is amended to require magistrates’ courts, immediately before proceeding to trial, to review (i) the need for reporting or comparable directions, and (ii) arrangements for public observation and reporting. Part 25 Rule 25.2 is amended to require the Crown Court, immediately before proceeding to trial, to review (i) the need for reporting or comparable directions, and (ii) arrangements for public observation and reporting. Part 42 Rules 42.11 and 42.15 are amended to require service of a notice of appeal in confiscation proceedings on the Registrar of Criminal Appeals, not on the Crown Court officer. Rule 42.20 is amended to apply to all the appeals to which Part 42 applies. Rules 42.5, 42.11, 42.12, 42.13, 42.15, 42.16 and 42.21 are amended to correspond with comparable rules in Parts 36 to 40, which govern other types of appeal to the Court of Appeal. Glossary The glossary that was contained in the Criminal Procedure Rules 2020 is omitted. Rule 17.8 of the Criminal Procedure Rules 2020 is renumbered rule 17.9 to accommodate new rule 17.8 (described above). Rules 18.14 to 18.17 of the Criminal Procedure Rules 2020 were revoked by the Criminal Procedure (Amendment) Rules 2024, S.I. 2024/62. To accommodate their omission, in the Criminal Procedure Rules 2025 rules 18.18 to 18.28 of the Criminal Procedure Rules 2020 become rules 18.14 to 18.24 respectively. Rules 33.2, 33.3, 33.47, 33.48, 33.49 and 33.50 of the Criminal Procedure Rules 2020 were revoked by the Criminal Procedure (Amendment) Rules 2024, S.I. 2024/62. To accommodate their omission, in the Criminal Procedure Rules 2025: a rules 33.4 to 33.46 of the Criminal Procedure Rules 2020 become rules 33.2 to 33.44 respectively; and b rules 33.51 to 33.70 of the Criminal Procedure Rules 2020 become rules 33.45 to 33.64 respectively. Amendments to cross-references. The following rules, and notes to rules (‘n’), are amended to bring up to date the cross-references that they contain, both generally and in consequence of the re-numbering of rules in Parts 18 and 33: 3.8, 3.8(n), 3.9, 9.5, 9.10(n), 18.3, 18.4(n), 18.5, 18.5(n), 18.20, Part 18 Summary of eligibility for measures to which the Part applies, 22.3, 22.3(n), 25.16(n), 33.11(n), 33.24, 33.25, 33.28, 33.29, 33.31, 33.44, 33.45, 33.48, 33.50, 33.51, 36.8, 36.14, 39.3, 40.3, 40.6, 42.2, 45.1(n), 45.11, 48.5(n), 48.9 and 48.9(n). Amendments for consistency of expression. Rules 33.2(3) and 33.48(3) are amended for consistency of the possessive of “witness” with other instances of that word in these Rules. Rules 34.4(4) and 36.8(2) are amended for consistency of expression with amended rule 42.5(2). These Rules come into force on 6th October 2025.

Read the full note and every offence in this instrument

How this became law

This instrument became law without a debate or a vote. Under the negative procedure it took effect unless a motion to stop it succeeded, and none was tabled.

Neither House could have amended it. A statutory instrument is put to each House as a whole thing, to be approved or not; the Houses can reject an instrument or record their regret, but they cannot change a word of it. That is the constitutional position for every offence on this site.

The full procedural history →

What Parliament said

Mentions of this instrument in Hansard. Parliamentary material is reused under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0.

Other offences in the same instrument

How this was identified as an offence

Everything above rests on the judgement that this provision creates a criminal offence, rather than mentioning one. That judgement is made by rule, from the words of the provision, and this is the rule that made it — with a confidence of 0.60.

Basis
the provision says the conduct is “punishable”
Confidence
0.60 of 1.00

A provision that states a penalty for an offence created elsewhere can read very like one that creates an offence, and the rules can mistake the one for the other. If the text quoted above sets a penalty for something made an offence by another provision, treat the classification on this page with that in mind, and read the instrument.

Check the source