Post Office (Horizon System) Offences Act 2024

10 Interpretation E+W+N.I.

(1) In this Act—

• “caution” means—

  (a)

  in the case of England and Wales—

  (i)

  a conditional caution given under section 22 of the Criminal Justice Act 2003,

  (ii)

  a youth conditional caution given under section 66A of the Crime and Disorder Act 1998, or

  (iii)

  any other caution given to a person in England and Wales in respect of an offence which, at the time the caution is given, the person has admitted;

  (b)

  in the case of Northern Ireland, any caution (including a restorative caution) given to a person in Northern Ireland in respect of an offence which, at the time the caution is given, the person has admitted;

  and “cautioned” is to be read accordingly;

• “conviction” means—

  (a)

  a conviction by or before a court, or

  (b)

  a finding in any criminal proceedings (including a finding linked with a finding of insanity) that a person has committed an offence or done the act or made the omission charged,

  and “convicted” is to be read accordingly;

• “the Horizon system” means any version of the computer system known as Horizon (and sometimes referred to as Legacy Horizon, Horizon Online or HNG-X) used by the Post Office, other than the version referred to as HNG-A;

• “postal services” has the same meaning as in the Postal Services Act 2011 (see section 27 of that Act);

• “the Post Office” means any of the following—

  (a)

  the Post Office;

  (b)

  Post Office Limited or Post Office Counters Limited (registered number 02154540);

  (c)

  Royal Mail Group Limited, Consignia Public Limited Company or Royal Mail Group Plc (registered number 04138203);

• “post office” means any premises or vehicle in England and Wales or Northern Ireland from which postal services are provided (whether alone or with other services) directly to the public;

• “post office business” means the business of providing postal services (whether alone or with other services) from a post office;

• “quashed conviction” means a conviction quashed by section 1(1);

• “relevant offence” has the meaning given by section 2.

(2) The following provisions (which deem a conviction of a person discharged not to be a conviction) do not apply for the purposes of this Act to a conviction of a person for an offence in respect of which an order has been made discharging the person absolutely or conditionally—

(a) section 14 of the Powers of Criminal Courts (Sentencing) Act 2000;

(b) section 82 of the Sentencing Code;

(c) Article 6 of the Criminal Justice (Northern Ireland) Order 1996 (S.I.‌‌ 1996/3160 (N.I. 24)).

(3) Nothing in this Act affects any power of a court to quash a conviction to which this Act does not apply.

Commencement Information

I1 S. 10 in force at Royal Assent, see s. 11(2)