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Section 46: Discharge of jury because of jury tampering

Criminal Justice Act 2003 · 2003 c. 44View on legislation.gov.uk

Part 7: Trials on indictment without a jury

This section applies where—

a judge is minded during a trial on indictment to discharge the jury, and
he is so minded because jury tampering appears to have taken place.

Before taking any steps to discharge the jury, the judge must—

inform the parties that he is minded to discharge the jury,
inform the parties of the grounds on which he is so minded, and
allow the parties an opportunity to make representations.

Where the judge, after considering any such representations, discharges the jury, he may make an order that the trial is to continue without a jury if, but only if, he is satisfied—

that jury tampering has taken place, and
that to continue the trial without a jury would be fair to the defendant or defendants;

but this is subject to subsection (4).

If the judge considers that it is necessary in the interests of justice for the trial to be terminated, he must terminate the trial.

Where the judge terminates the trial under subsection (4), he may make an order that any new trial which is to take place must be conducted without a jury if he is satisfied in respect of the new trial that both of the conditions set out in section 44 are likely to be fulfilled.

Subsection (5) is without prejudice to any other power that the judge may have on terminating the trial.

Subject to subsection (5), nothing in this section affects the application of section 43 or 44 in relation to any new trial which takes place following the termination of the trial.

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.