Criminal Justice Act 1948
Appearance
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Long title | An Act to abolish penal servitude, hard labour, prison divisions and sentence of whipping ; to amend the law-relating to the probation of offenders, and otherwise to reform existing methods and provide new methods of dealing with offenders and persons liable to imprisonment; to amend the law relating to the proceedings of criminal courts, including the law relating to evidence before such courts; to abolish privilege of peerage in criminal proceedings; to regulate the management of prisons and other institutions and the treatment of offenders and other persons committed to custody; to re-enact certain enactments relating to the matters aforesaid; and for purposes connected therewith. |
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Citation | 11 & 12 Geo 6 c 58 |
Introduced by | Attlee ministry |
Territorial extent | England and Wales[2] |
Dates | |
Royal assent | 30 July 1948 |
Status: Amended | |
Text of statute as originally enacted |
The Criminal Justice Act 1948 (11 & 12 Geo 6 c 58) is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom.
Overview
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/6/60/Rembrandt_-_Christ_at_the_Column_Hessische_Landesmuseum.jpg/220px-Rembrandt_-_Christ_at_the_Column_Hessische_Landesmuseum.jpg)
It is "one of the most important measures relating to the reform of the criminal law and its administration".[3]
It abolished:
- penal servitude, hard labour and prison divisions for England and Wales (s.1).
- state punishment of whipping there and in Scotland (s.2).
- right of peers to be tried in the House of Lords (s.30).[4]
Other substantive provisions still in force are:
- s. 27, as amended by (in particular) the Children and Young Persons Act 1969, which provides for remand of defendants between 18 and 20 years old to remand centres, and s. 49, which regulates them;
- s. 31(1), which gives English courts extraterritorial jurisdiction in respect of Crown servants committing indictable offences abroad while in the course of their duties;
- s. 37, relating to bail on appeal;
- s. 41, which makes certain kinds of evidence admissible via a signed certificate instead of oral submissions;
- s 42, on a procedural rule in cases on indictment;
- s. 66, partly defining "custody";
- s. 70(2), authorizing pensions to be paid notwithstanding disqualification from office under section 2 of the Forfeiture Act 1870 due to conviction for a crime.
Scottish and Northern Irish analogues
Some of its content is mirrored in the Criminal Justice (Scotland) Act 1949 and the Criminal Justice Act (Northern Ireland) 1953.
Partial repeal
The act was partially repealed in 1977; it was modernised and recast in Acts including the Criminal Law Acts 1977 and 1997.
See also
Notes
- ^ The citation of this Act by this short title is authorised by section 83(1) of this Act
- ^ This is the effect of sections 81 and 82 and the presumption that an Act extends to the United Kingdom unless the contrary is specified. Some of the provisions formerly extended to those countries.
- ^ Halsbury's Statutes, volume 12(1)
- ^ s. 30 Criminal Justice Act 1948
External links
- The Criminal Justice Act 1948, as amended from the National Archives.
- The Criminal Justice Act 1948, as originally enacted from the National Archives.