The Legal Aid in Criminal Cases (Statement of Means) (Amendment) Rules (Northern Ireland) 2003

Made: 1st December 2003

To be laid before Parliament

Coming into operation: 26th December 2003

The Lord Chancellor, in exercise of the powers conferred by Article 36(3) of the Legal Aid, Advice and Assistance (Northern Ireland) Order 1981[^f00001], and now vested in him[^f00002], after consultation with the Lord Chief Justice, the Attorney General and the Magistrates' Courts Rules Committee and with the approval of the Treasury, hereby makes the following Rules:

Citation and commencement

1

These Rules may be cited as the Legal Aid in Criminal Cases (Statement of Means) (Amendment) Rules (Northern Ireland) 2003 and shall come into operation on 26th December 2003.

Interpretation

2

In these Rules “the principal rules” means the Legal Aid in Criminal Cases (Statement of Means) Rules (Northern Ireland) 1999[^f00003].

3

After rule 2 of the principal rules there shall be inserted the following new rule –

(2A) In these Rules “diversionary youth conference” has the meaning given by Article 10A(2) of the Criminal Justice (Children) (Northern Ireland) Order 1998[^f00004].

Statement of means forms

4

For rule 3 of the principal rules there shall be substituted the following new rule –

(3) Form 1 in the Schedule shall be the prescribed form for the purposes of Article 32(1) of the Legal Aid, Advice and Assistance (Northern Ireland) Order 1981 (statement of means for the purposes of legal aid in criminal proceedings) and Form 2 shall be the prescribed form for the purposes of Article 28A of that Order (statement of means for the purposes of legal aid for diversionary youth conferences).

5

The form set out in the Schedule shall be inserted in the Schedule to the principal rules.

SCHEDULE

Signed

Signed by authority of the Lord Chancellor

Lord Filkin — Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, — Dated 1st December 2003

We approve

Nick Ainger — John Heppell — Two of the Lord’s Commissioners of Her Majesty’s Treasury — Dated 4th December 2003

Explanatory note

(This note is not part of the Rules.)

These Rules amend the Legal Aid in Criminal Cases (Statement of Means) Rules (Northern Ireland) 1999 to provide a statement of means form for an application for free legal aid for diversionary youth conferences under Article 28A of the Legal Aid, Advice and Assistance (Northern Ireland) Order 1981.

Footnotes

[^f00001]: S.I. 1981/228 (N.I. 8)

[^f00002]: S.I. 1982/159

[^f00003]: S.R. 1999 No. 233

[^f00004]: S.I. 1998/1504 (N.I. 9); Article 10A was inserted by section 58 of the Justice (Northern Ireland) Act 2002 (c. 26)