Time
27. Where the time prescribed by or under these rules for doing any act expires on a Saturday, Sunday or public holiday in Northern Ireland, the act shall be done in time if done on the next working day.
Transmission of documents
28. (1) Subject to paragraph (2), any document required or authorised by these rules to be served on or otherwise transmitted to any person may be sent by pre-paid post or delivered:
(a) in the case of a document directed to the Commissioners, the Chief Commissioner or the chairman of the panel, to the office of the Commissioners;
(b) in the case of a document directed to the Department of Justice, to the Northern Ireland Prison Service Headquarters;
(c) in any other case, to the last known address of the person to whom the document is directed.
(2) Service of any document required to be served or otherwise transmitted under these rules may be effected by FAX where:
(a) the technical facilities are available to the parties and the parties consent to and agree upon mode of service;
(b) the parties agree the specified FAX numbers to which the document is transmitted; and
(c) not later than one day after service by FAX, the party serving the document dispatches a copy of it to the other party or parties, as required by these rules, by any of the means prescribed for service under paragraph (1), and if he fails to do so, the document shall be deemed never to have been served by FAX.
(3) Where the FAX is transmitted on a working day before 5.00 pm it shall, unless the contrary is shown, be deemed to be served on that day, and, in any other case, on the working day next following.
(4) In this rule “FAX” means the making of a facsimile copy of a document by the transmission of electronic signals.
Irregularities
29. Any irregularity resulting from a failure to comply with these rules, or with any rule of practice for the time being in force, which occurs before a single Commissioner appointed under rule 12(1) or a panel appointed under rule 12(2) has determined a case shall not of itself render the proceedings void, unless the Commissioners, the single Commissioner or the panel shall so direct, but such proceedings may be set aside either wholly or in part as irregular, or amended or otherwise dealt with in such manner and upon such terms as the Commissioners, the single Commissioner or the panel shall think fit.
Clerical mistakes and slips
30. Clerical mistakes in any document recording decisions under these rules, or errors arising in such document from an accidental slip or omission, may be corrected:
(a) in the case of a provisional direction or direction, by the single Commissioner appointed under rule 12(1) by certificate under the single Commissioner’s hand;
(b) in the case of a direction of a panel appointed under rule 12(2) by the chairman of the panel by certificate under the chairman of the panel’s hand;
(c) in the case of a direction by the Chief Commissioner under rules 14(6) or 18(7) by certificate under the Chief Commissioner’s hand; or
(d) with the consent of the parties, by written certification of the Chief Commissioner.