Committal
In criminal procedure, the process by which a magistrates' court sends a case to the Crown Court for trial or sentence. Committal for trial of indictable-only offences has largely been replaced by the administrative process of 'sending'; committal for sentence remains a live procedure.
Independent editorial summary — not the official statute text. Read the official version on legislation.gov.uk.
CPS guidance on allocation, sending and committal explains that the modern route to the Crown Court for the most serious cases is no longer a committal hearing at all: 'Sections 50 to 52B and Schedule 3 of the Crime and Disorder Act 1998 govern the administrative process, at a first hearing in the magistrates' court, whereby a defendant charged with an offence triable only on indictment should be sent forthwith to the Crown Court.' This 'sending' procedure replaced the old committal-for-trial hearings for indictable-only offences.
Committal has not disappeared altogether, however. Where a magistrates' court convicts a defendant but decides its own sentencing powers are inadequate, or where certain other statutory grounds apply, the same guidance confirms that a set of provisions in the Sentencing Act 2020 'governs the process whereby the magistrates' court can commit a defendant to the Crown Court to be sentenced there.' This committal for sentence is the surviving core of what the term now describes in day-to-day practice.
Related terms
Official sources
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