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Some parts of the Civil Procedure Rules seem to be parts of the rules, other seem to be labelled as Practice Directions, however they are still numbered as in the same scheme as the other parts.
Then there is the Criminal Practice Directions which makes it handy to conveniently refer to the Civil Procedure Rules as CPR without risking confusion with the criminal ones because I suppose they would be CPD if abbreviated. But what other significance does this difference in terminology have?
There are many Procedure Rules are they just that - the rules that need to be followed i.e. the "what".
Whereas a Practice Direction is "how" a Rule should be implemented, or as Wikipedia puts it, a supplemental protocol to rules of civil and criminal procedure in the courts – "a device to regulate minor procedural matters".