The Registrar of Criminal Appeals had no power to determine the substantive merits of an application for leave to appeal, but had to refer such applications to the full court pursuant to the Criminal Procedure Rules 2015 r.36.15. Consistently with the scheme of the Criminal Appeal Act 1968, an "effective" application was one which complied with the procedural requirements, with no additional requirement that it be arguable.
Both applications failed to satisfy the criteria for re-opening a decision, namely that there was a clear and undisputed procedural error and no other effective remedy. Neither C's complaint about the position of the single judge, nor the alleged forgery of D's record and the qualifying days on curfew, were uncontested procedural matters (para.49).