Section 385

Subject to this section, sections 378 to 383 shall apply in relation to statements of opinion as it applies in relation to statements of fact, subject to the necessary modifications and in particular the modification that any reference in those sections to a fact stated in a statement shall be construed as a reference to a matter dealt with therein.

Section 380, as applied by subsection (1), shall not render admissible in any criminal proceedings a statement of opinion contained in a record unless that statement would be admissible in those proceedings if made in the course of giving oral evidence by the person who originally supplied the information from which the record was compiled; but where a statement of opinion contained in a record deals with a matter on which the person who originally supplied the information from which the record was compiled is (or would if living be) qualified to give oral expert evidence, section 380, as applied by subsection (1), shall have effect in relation to that statement as if so much of section 380 (1) as requires personal knowledge on the part of that person were omitted.

Where a person is called as a witness in any criminal proceedings, a statement of opinion by him on a relevant matter on which he is not qualified to give expert evidence, if made as a way of conveying relevant facts personally perceived by him, is admissible as evidence of what he perceived.[384