Subject to any provision made by or under this or any other Act (and in particular to any rules of court made in pursuance of subsection (2) and any order under subsection (3)), business in the High Court of any description mentioned in Schedule 1, as for the time being in force, shall be distributed among the Divisions in accordance with that Schedule.
Rules of court may provide for the distribution of business in the High Court among the Divisions; but any rules made in pursuance of this subsection shall have effect subject to any orders for the time being in force under subsection (3).
Subject to subsection (5), the Lord Chief Justice may, with the concurrence of the Lord Chancellor, by order—
The powers conferred by subsection (2) and subsection (3) include power to assign business of any description to two or more Divisions concurrently.
No order under subsection (3)(b) relating to any business shall be made without the concurrence of the senior judge of—
Subject to rules of court, the fact that a cause or matter commenced in the High Court falls within a class of business assigned by or under this Act to a particular Division does not make it obligatory for it to be allocated or transferred to that Division.
Without prejudice to subsections (1) to (5) and section 63, rules of court may provide for the distribution of the business (other than business required to be heard by a divisional court) in any Division of the High Court among the judges of that Division.
Any order under subsection (3) shall be made by statutory instrument, which shall be laid before Parliament after being made.
The Lord Chief Justice may nominate a judicial office holder (as defined in section 109(4) of the Constitutional Reform Act 2005) to exercise his functions under subsection (3).