These Rules may be cited as the Magistrates' Courts (Miscellaneous Amendments) Rules 1999, and shall come into force on 1st November 1999.

For rule 54(4) of the Magistrates' Courts Rules 1981 there shall be substituted:

“(4)    There shall not be taken under the warrant the clothing or bedding of any person or his family or the tools, books, vehicles or other equipment which he personally needs to use in his employment, business or vocation, provided that in this paragraph the word “person” shall not include a corporation.”.

In the Direction forming part of Form 48 in Schedule 2 to the Magistrates' Courts (Forms) Rules 1981, for “to the value of fifty pounds, the tools and implements of the accused's trade” there shall be substituted “the tools, books, vehicles or other equipment which the accused personally needs to use in his employment, business or vocation, provided that these exceptions shall not apply where the accused is a corporation”.

Signed by authority of the Lord Chancellor

Keith Vaz

Parliamentary Secretary

Lord Chancellor's Department

6th October 1999

These Rules amend the wording in the Magistrates' Courts Rules 1981 preventing distress against clothing and bedding and the tools of the accused's trade, and makes a consequential amendment to the form of distress warrant (Form 48).