Rules of court may be made by the Lord Chief Justice for the purpose of regulating and prescribing , except in relation to any criminal cause or matter, the practice and procedure to be followed in the Crown Court . . . .
Without prejudice to the generality of subsection (1), the matters about which rules of court may be made under this section include all matters of practice and procedure in the Senior Courts which were regulated or prescribed by rules of court immediately before the commencement of this Act.
No provision of this or any other Act, or contained in any instrument made under any Act, which—
shall be taken as derogating from the generality of subsection (1).
Rules made under this section shall have effect subject to any special rules for the time being in force in relation to proceedings in the Senior Courts of any particular kind.
Special rules may apply—
to proceedings to which the special rules apply.
Rules made under this section may apply—
to proceedings to which rules made under this section apply.
Where rules may be applied under subsection (5) or (5A), they may be applied—
No rule which may involve an increase of expenditure out of public funds may be made under this section except with the concurrence of the Treasury, but the validity of any rule made under this section shall not be called in question in any proceedings in any court either by the court or by any party to the proceedings on the ground only that it was a rule as to the making of which the concurrence of the Treasury was necessary and that the Treasury did not concur or are not expressed to have concurred.
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In this section "special rules" means rules applying to proceedings of any particular kind in the Senior Courts, being rules made by an authority other than the Civil Procedure Rule Committee, the Family Procedure Rule Committee or , the Criminal Procedure Rule Committee ... under any provision of this or any other Act which (in whatever words) confers on that authority power to make rules in relation to proceedings of that kind in the Senior Courts.
The Lord Chief Justice may nominate a judicial office holder (as defined in section 109(4) of the Constitutional Reform Act 2005) to exercise the Lord Chief Justice's functions under this section.