Case Management, PTPH, Indictment and Disclosure: Introduction

The procedural framework is the Criminal Procedure Rules 2025 as amended by the provisions of SI 2026/47 already in force, the Criminal Practice Directions as amended on 16 March 2026, the 2020 CPIA Code and the 2024 Attorney General’s Guidelines. A later publication is not automatically an operative rule.

Criminal case preparation turns a charge and a plea into a case that can be tried fairly. The working sequence is forum → plea and real issues → lawful charge or count → evidence and unused material → applications → directions → compliance → genuine readiness. Disclosure is not a box ticked between two hearings: it starts with investigation and is revisited as the issues change. The Criminal Procedure Rules, abbreviated CrimPR, govern procedure. The Criminal Procedure and Investigations Act 1996, abbreviated CPIA, supplies the central statutory disclosure framework. A direction is an instruction made by the court; an application asks the court to exercise an identified power. Neither label supplies a power that the law does not give.

Where this chapter belongs. Bring forward from the first-hearing, court-routing and bail chapters the classification of each charge, the chosen trial court, the plea or likely plea, the sending decision where applicable, bail or custody status, initial details of the prosecution case, and identified communication or participation needs. This chapter does not redo allocation or bail. It prepares the issues and materials needed for the evidence, witness and trial-procedure chapters. Obtaining a recording, deciding whether it can be admitted, assessing its weight, and deciding whether the prosecution has proved guilt are four different tasks. The focus here is preparation and disclosure; the later chapters supply the full admissibility and trial tests.

What you should be able to do. For case preparation, turn a case file into an issues-and-directions plan identifying the actor, required output, legal trigger, deadline and threat to readiness. For disclosure, classify material, apply the disclosure test to the live defence, calculate the defence period, and choose between a focused request, section 8, public-interest protection and rule 3.11. For indictment control and specialist pre-trial procedures, identify a count defect, distinguish count inclusion from joint-trial fairness, and select dismissal, amendment, severance, a preparatory hearing, a binding ruling or an abuse application by its trigger and consequence. The specialist procedures explain the choices that can arise during preparation; do not confuse that supporting depth with a separate syllabus requirement to memorise every procedural detail.

The examples below are teaching hypotheticals, except for the two identified appellate cases. Work through the facts before reading the explanation.