The Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Act 2012 (Commencement No. 9, Saving Provision and Specification of Commencement Date) Order 2014

EXPLANATORY NOTE

(This note is not part of the Order)

This Order is the ninth commencement order made under the Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Act 2012 (c. 10) (“the 2012 Act”).

Article 2 brings into force on 10th March 2014 sections 139 and 141(1) to (6), (10) and (11) of the 2012 Act together with Schedule 25 to that Act (with the exception of paragraph 4). Those provisions make amendments to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 (c. 53) (“the 1974 Act”) and make consequential amendments to other legislation. Article 2 is subject to the saving provision in Article 3.

Article 3 makes saving provision for an endorsement given by a court for an offence mentioned in Schedule 2 to the Road Traffic Offenders Act 1988 (c. 53) (“the 1988 Act”). Such an endorsement is a sentence in relation to which the last entry in Table A in section 5(2) of the 1974 Act applies. The principal effect of this saving provision is that such an endorsement continues to attract a rehabilitation period of 5 years.

Article 3 also provides that the saving provision does not apply to the commencement of section 139(5)(b) of the 2012 Act, which omits section 6(6) of the 1974 Act. The effect of the omission of section 6(6) of the 1974 Act is that summary offences and other offences in that subsection are taken into account when calculating the rehabilitation period under section 6(4) where a person is convicted of a further offence. The effect of article 3 is therefore that a conviction resulting in an endorsement given by a court in relation to an offence mentioned in Schedule 2 to the 1988 Act is affected by the omission of section 6(6) of the 1974 Act in the same way as any other conviction.

Article 4 specifies 10th March 2014 as the commencement date for the purposes of section 141(1) to (6) of the 2012 Act.