Law digests: 22 September 2023

Criminal law

BHQ v R [2023] EWCA Crim 1018, [2023] All ER (D) 25 (Sep)

The Court of Appeal, Criminal Division, ruled that it had jurisdiction to deal with a ruling made in a pre-trial preparatory hearing pursuant to s 29 of the Criminal Procedure and Investigations Act 1996 (CPIA 1996), concerning the question of abuse of process. The court so ruled in circumstances where the Registrar of Criminal Appeals had referred the defendant’s application for permission to appeal to the full court, and where the question had been whether a ruling on an application for a stay for abuse of process was one concerning ‘any other question of law relating to the case’, within the meaning of s 31(3), CPIA 1996. The court held that appeals from rulings in preparatory hearings were in respect of questions of law, the resolution of which commonly involved making findings of fact or required the judge to make evaluative assessments. On the facts, the defendant’s application for leave to appeal against the judge’s ruling was dismissed.

Defamation

Wright