Part I
- (a) a judge has made an order under subsection (3) above; and
- (b) the prosecution have complied with it,
the judge may order the person indicted or, if the indictment charges a number of persons, any of them to prepare and serve any documents that appear to him to be relevant and whose service could be so ordered at the preparatory hearing.
(5) An order under this section may specify the time within which it is to be complied with, but Crown Court Rules may make provision as to the minimum or maximum time that may be specified for compliance.
Commencement of trial and arraignment. 8.—(1) If a judge orders a preparatory hearing, the trial shall begin with that hearing.
(2) Arraignment shall accordingly take place at the start of the preparatory hearing.
The preparatory hearing. 9.—(1) At the preparatory hearing the judge may exercise any of the powers specified in this section.
(2) The judge may adjourn a preparatory hearing from time to time.
(3) He may determine—
- (a) an application under section 6 above;
- (b) any question as to the admissibility of evidence; and
- (c) any other question of law relating to the case.
(4) He may order the prosecution—
- (a) to supply the court and the defendant or, if there is more than one, each of them with a statement (a “case statement”) of the following—
- (i) the principal facts of the prosecution case;
- (ii) the witnesses who will speak to those facts;
- (iii) any exhibits relevant to those facts;
- (iv) any proposition of law on which the prosecution proposes to rely; and
- (v) the consequences in relation to any of the counts in the indictment that appear to the prosecution to flow from the matters stated in pursuance of sub-paragraphs (i) to (iv) above;
- (b) to prepare their evidence and other explanatory material in such a form as appears to him to be likely to aid comprehension by the jury and to supply it in that form to the court and to the defendant or, if there is more than one, to each of them;
- (c) to give the court and the defendant or, if there is more than one, each of them notice of documents the truth of the contents of which ought in the prosecution's view to be admitted and of any other matters which in their view ought to be agreed;
- (d) to make any amendments of any case statement supplied in pursuance of an order under paragraph (a) above that appear to the court to be appropriate, having regard to objections made by the defendant or, if there is more than one, by any of them.
(5) Where—
- (a) a judge has ordered the prosecution to supply a case statement; and
- (b) the prosecution have complied with the order,
