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Section 55: Court of criminal division.

Senior Courts Act 1981 · 1981 c. 54View on legislation.gov.uk

Part III: PRACTICE AND PROCEDURE — : The Court of Appeal

This section relates to the criminal division of the Court of Appeal; and in this section "court" means a court of that division.

Subject to subsection (6),a court shall be duly constituted for the purpose of exercising any of its jurisdiction if it consists of an uneven number of judges not less than three.

Where—

part of any proceedings before a court has been heard by an uneven number of judges greater than three; and
one or more members of the court are unable to continue,

the court shall remain duly constituted for the purpose of those proceedings so long as the number of members (whether even or uneven) is not reduced to less than three.

Subject to subsection (6),a court shall, if it consists of two judges, be duly constituted for every purpose except—

determining an appeal against—
conviction; or
a verdict of not guilty by reason of insanity; or
a finding ... under section 4 of the Criminal Procedure (Insanity) Act 1964 (unfitness to plead) that a person is under a disability;
reviewing sentencing under Part IV of the Criminal Justice Act 1988;
determining an application for leave to appeal to the Supreme Court; and
refusing an application for leave to appeal to the criminal division against conviction or any such verdict or finding as is mentioned in paragraph (a)(ii) or (iii), other than an application which has been refused by a single judge.

Where an appeal has been heard by a court consisting of an even number of judges and the members of the court are equally divided, the case shall be re-argued before and determined by an uneven number of judges not less than three.

A court shall not be duly constituted if it includes more than one Circuit judge acting as a judge of the court under section 9.

About this text

This legislation text comes from legislation.gov.uk. Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. These source and reuse terms cover the legislation text, not Remedy's commentary.

Reuse reviewed 21 August 2026 under Open Government Licence v3.0.