Post Office (Horizon System) Offences Act 2024

10InterpretationE+W+N.I.

This section has no associated Explanatory Notes

(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

I1S. 10 in force at Royal Assent, see s. 11(2)