Question
Asked by
To ask Her Majesty's Government what guidance they have issued to officials at the Traffic Enforcement Centre at Northampton County Court who make court orders accepting or rejecting out-of-time statements of truth and statutory declarations; and whether they will place a copy of any such guidance in the Library of the House. [HL1293]
No guidance has been provided to officials on this matter.
Paragraph 5 of the practice direction supporting Part 75 of the Civil Procedure Rules 1998 sets out the procedure for dealing with applications to file statutory declarations and witness statements out of time.
The practice direction makes it clear that a copy of an application must be sent to the relevant local authority seeking representations in the first instance. It also provides that where the local authority accepts the application, it is treated as an in-time statutory declaration and the court registration is cancelled.
Where the local authority rejects the application, the practice direction provides that a court officer must make a decision on the evidence presented about whether the application should be granted or refused. The evidence might be for example, if a respondent was unable to comply with timescales because he or she had been out of the country at the relevant time. Both parties are then informed of the decision.
Rule 75.5A of the Civil Procedure Rules provides that any party may subsequently apply for a decision of a court officer to be reviewed by a district judge. This review is limited to the decision to refuse the application for further time and cannot consider the validity of the notice of the amount due or any order.