(This note is not part of the Order)
Section 103(2)(b) of the Criminal Justice Act 2003 provides that a defendant’s propensity to commit offences of the kind with which he is charged may (without prejudice to any other way of doing so) be established by evidence that he has been convicted of an offence of the same category as the one with which he is charged. Section 103(4)(b) provides that two offences are of the same category as each other if they belong to the same category of offences prescribed for the purposes of that section by an order made by the Secretary of State.
The categories prescribed by this Order are theft and sexual offences (persons under the age of 16). Each category consists of offences of the same type.