Consolidated practice directions

___________________________________________________________ 
1. 
Subject to any Court order, this practice direction applies to early 
compliance with a witness summons to produce a record or thing in 
General Division - Criminal matters. 
2. 
For the purposes of this practice direction, there is early compliance if: 
(a) the summons requires a witness to produce the record or thing to 
the Court on a date before the trial; or 
(b) the witness complies with the summons at least two (2) days before 
the attendance date in the summons, under s 163(1)(a) of the 
Criminal Procedure Act 2004
.
3. 
When there is early compliance with a summons and no application is 
made to have the witness summons or part of it cancelled, the party who 
applied for the summons shall have leave to inspect the record or thing 
produced. 
4. 
The party who applied for the summons is not permitted to take copies 
of the record and must apply for leave from the Court under s 163(3)(a) 
Criminal Procedure Act 2004
. 
5. 
Inspection or copying of the record or thing by any other person or party 
is not permitted and any other party or person must apply for leave 
from the Court under s 163(3) 
Criminal Procedure Act 2004
. 

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5. General Division - Criminal 
 
Supreme Court of Western Australia 
Consolidated Practice Direction
5.6
Confidentiality of Pre-Sentence and other Reports 
relevant to Sentence 
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Background
1. 
Section 22 of the 
Sentencing Act 1995
(WA) imposes limits upon the 
persons to whom pre-sentence and other reports relevant to sentence, 
such as psychological and psychiatric reports (collectively referred to as 
PSRs in this Direction) may be provided. The provisions of the section 
embody an obvious legislative intention to the effect that the contents of 
PSRs should be kept confidential, and their terms not generally 
disclosed or published. 
2. 
This Practice Direction deals with the procedures which will apply when 
access is sought to a PSR, and is intended to maintain the legislative 
objective of confidentiality.