The Criminal Justice Act 2003 (Commencement No. 30 and Consequential Amendment) Order 2012

EXPLANATORY NOTE

(This note is not part of the Order)

The Criminal Justice Act 2003 (Commencement No. 30 and Consequential Amendment) Order 2012 commences provisions of the Criminal Justice Act 2003 (c.44) (“the Act”) as a consequence of changes to sentencing provisions made by the Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Act 2012.

Article 2 brings into force section 257(2)(c) of the Act (additional days for disciplinary offences) to allow for the extension of licence periods in respect of additional days where the licence period is shorter than the end of sentence.

The effect of article 3(1)(a) is the repeal of section 65(1) of the Criminal Justice Act 1991 (c.53) (supervision of young offenders after release) so that no further supervision periods can be imposed under that section. The rest of the section 65 is left in force so that any supervision periods imposed before 3rd December 2012 continue to operate and breaches can be pursued until the licence is finished. Such supervision periods only last for three months and accordingly, to allow for breach proceedings to be brought in the court, the rest of section 65 is repealed (by virtue of article 3(1)(b)) on 1st May 2013.

The effect of article 3(2) and (3) is to repeal section 85 of the Powers of Criminal Courts (Sentencing) Act 2000 (c.6) (“the Sentencing Act”) (sexual and violent offences: extension of certain custodial sentences for licence purposes), subject to a saving in relation to persons convicted before 3rd December 2012.

The effect of article 3(4) is to repeal sections 116 and 117 of the Sentencing Act (return to prison etc. where offence committed during original sentence).

Article 4 makes consequential amendments to remove previous saving provisions in relation to sections 85, 116 and 117 of the Sentencing Act.