Sch.
(2) Any such notice shall be served before the magistrates’ court—
- (a) has commenced hearing the evidence for the prosecution (other than a deposition relating to the arrest or to the remand of the accused), where the court is conducting a preliminary investigation; or
- (b) has begun to conduct a preliminary inquiry.
(3) On the service of such a notice the functions of the magistrates’ court shall cease in relation to the case except as provided by paragraph 9 below or by Article 29(2)(d) of the S.I. 1981/228 (N.I.8).Legal Aid, Advice and Assistance (Northern Ireland) Order 1981.
(4) The decision to serve such a notice shall not be subject to appeal or liable to be questioned in any court.
(5) In this Part of this Schedule “prosecuting authority” means the Attorney General or Director of Public Prosecutions for Northern Ireland and "notice of transfer" means a notice under this paragraph.
Contents of notice
8.—(1) A notice of transfer shall specify the proposed place of trial; and in selecting that place the prosecuting authority shall have regard to the considerations to which section 48(1) of the 1978 c. 23.Judicature (Northern Ireland) Act 1978 requires a magistrates’ court committing a person for trial to have regard when selecting the place at which he is to be tried.
(2) A notice of transfer shall specify the charge or charges to which it relates and include or be accompanied by such additional material as regulations under paragraph 10 below may require.
Remand
9.—(1) If a magistrates’ court has remanded a person to whom a notice of transfer relates in custody, it shall have power—
- (a) to order that he shall be safely kept in custody until delivered in due course of law; or
- (b) to release him on bail, that is to say, by directing him to appear before the Crown Court for trial;
and where his release on bail is conditional on his providing one or more sureties and the court fixes the amount in which the surety is to be bound with a view to his entering into his recognisance subsequently, the court shall in the meantime make an order such as is mentioned in paragraph (a) of this sub-paragraph.
(2) Where a notice of transfer is given after a person to whom it relates has been remanded on bail to appear before a magistrates’ court on an appointed day, the requirement that he shall so appear shall cease on the giving of the notice unless the notice states that it is to continue.
(3) Where that requirement ceases by virtue of sub-paragraph (2) above, it shall be duty of the person in question to appear before the Crown Court at the place specified by the notice of transfer as the proposed place of trial or at any place substituted for it by a direction under section 48(2) or (3) of the Judicature (Northern Ireland) Act 1978.
(4) If, in a case where the notice states that the requirement mentioned in sub-paragraph (2) above is to continue, a person to whom the notice relates appears before the magistrates’ court, the court shall have—
- (a) the powers and duties conferred on a magistrates’ court by subparagraph (I) abovebut subject as there provided; and
