Justice Reform (Amendment) Bill 2025 and Contempt of Court Bill 2025

The Justice Reform (Amendment) Bill 2025 is a complex piece of legislation.

Part of this complexity arises from the fact that this Bill proposes to amend an Act which itself serves as a vehicle to amend other Acts of Tynwald, so when referring to the amendments contained in the Justice Reform (Amendment) Bill 2025, additional reference must be made to not only the sections of the Justice Reform Act 2021, but also to the relevant pieces of legislation which are amended by that Act.

An extreme example of this is section 8 of the Justice Reform Act 2021, which will amend 11 other Acts¹.

This gives an idea of the sheer complexity of the amendments brought by the Justice Reform Act 2021, once overlaid by the full range of 'moving parts' in play and how difficult the bringing accurate and cohesive changes on this scale truly is. Therefore, in preparing this consultation document, typographical, grammatical and cross-referencing corrections, or the removal of amendments which targeted now repealed legislation², or harmonisation changes being made to language³ or to the way that the as amended legislation reads form part of a body of amendments which are not offered for detailed consultation.

Instead, to try and give some sense of the content and effect of the significant amendments proposed to the Justice Reform Act 2021 by the Justice Reform (Amendment) Bill 2025, this consultation has been broken down into a series of sections. Firstly concentrating on significant proposed corrections/enhancements to the Justice Reform Act 2021 (predominantly those identified in the review of the Justice Reform Act 2021 that was conducted by drafters in the Attorney General’s Chambers in preparing revised Rules of Court, intended to support the commencement of the Justice Reform Act 2021) where these changes impact the Summary Courts, the Juvenile Courts/Youth Courts, the Court of General Gaol Delivery and wider administration of the Criminal Justice System, and finally, those proposed amendments that represent fresh policy and subsequent proposed amendment to other Acts of Tynwald.

A table has been included at the beginning of the following sections, with a heading that signposts the area covered by the table. Each table shows the general correlation between the sections of the Justice Reform Act 2021, the purpose of those sections, any changes brought in clauses found within the Justice Reform (Amendment) Bill 2025, and the Act of Tynwald being addressed by the proposed amendment. Where possible (in the case of a direct simple correlation), an overview of the clause(s) from within the Justice Reform (Amendment) Bill 2025 and a brief summary of the changes are set out. Some of these changes cascade across multiple sections, or impact other Acts of Tynwald, so the following summaries are not in exhaustive detail, however an amended version of key impacted pieces of legislation has been prepared.

These include 'as amended' versions of the Justice Reform Act 2021, the Summary Jurisdiction Act 1989 and the Criminal Jurisdiction Act 1993. The full list of 'as amended' versions of Acts which have been prepared alongside this consultation can be found at Appendix 3 to this consultation, copies of these Acts can be found within the supporting materials to this consultation.

Abbreviations have been included where necessary in the following sections, to ensure that these sections do not become excessively long, all abbreviations used can be referred to the in the Glossary located in Appendix 1 of this consultation. The common abbreviations are:

• JRA2021 for Justice Reform Act 2021
• JRAB for Justice Reform (Amendment) Bill 2025
• SJA1989 for Summary Jurisdiction Act 1989
• CJA1993 for Criminal Jurisdiction Act 1993
• s. for section
• cl. for clause (the 'section' within the JRAB)

Infographics have also been incorporated into the following sections, to try and briefly summarise the impact of the changes.

The questions in relation to each area appear at the end of its section and consist of open questions to allow free text comment.

• Section 7.2 relates to key corrections or enhancements to the procedure of the Summary Courts
   
• Section 7.3 relates to key corrections or enhancements to the procedure of the Juvenile Courts/Youth Courts
   
• Section 7.4 relates to Other fresh changes or improvements to the procedure of the Summary Courts (COSJ) or Court of General Gaol Delivery (CGGD), or changes that support the operation and administration of the Criminal Justice System
   
• Section 7.5 relates to fresh changes in other key policy areas
   

¹The Summary Jurisdiction Act 1989; the Petty Sessions and Summary Jurisdiction Act 1927; the Criminal Justice Act 1963; the Children and Young Persons Act 1966; the Criminal Law Act 1981; the Legal Aid Act 1986; the Custody Act 1995; the Criminal Justice Act 2001; the Children and Young Persons Act 2001; the Education Act 2001; and the Interpretation Act 2015.

² E.g. s.75 of the Justice Reform Act 2021 was set to amend Schedule 1 of the Criminal Justice Act 2001, which was itself repealed by the coming into operation of the Sexual Offences and Obscene Publications Act 2021, therefore the amendment at section 75 of the Justice Reform Act 2021 is to be repealed by clause 44 of the Justice Reform (Amendment) Bill 2025.

³E.g. where they have been noted, reference to 'Her Majesty' are being amended to 'His Majesty', or other references such as those to the 'Chief Registrar' in connection with procedure of court are where appropriate amended to read 'court'. These types of harmonisation change have been made where they have become apparent within statutes that were already to be amended by the Justice Reform Act 2021, or the Justice Reform (Amendment) Bill 2025.