Remedy
Start free

Section 136J: Discharge of closure order

Sexual Offences Act 2003 · 2003 c. 42View on legislation.gov.uk

Part 2A: Closure orders

Any of the following persons may make a complaint to an appropriate judicial officer for an order that a closure order be discharged—

a constable;
the local authority;
a person on whom the closure notice relating to the closed premises was served under section 136C(3)(d) or (4);
any other person who has an interest in the closed premises but on whom the closure notice was not served.

If a complaint is made under subsection (1) by a person other than a constable the judicial officer may issue a summons directed to such constable as the judicial officer thinks appropriate requiring the constable to appear before the magistrates' court to answer to the complaint.

The court may not make an order discharging a closure order unless it is satisfied that the order is no longer necessary to prevent the premises being used for activities related to any of the specified prostitution, pornography or child sex offences in respect of which section 136D(9) applied.

If a complaint is made under subsection (1), a notice stating the date and time when, and the place at which, the complaint will be heard must be served on—

the persons mentioned in subsection (1)(c) and (d) (other than the complainant),
a constable (unless a constable is the complainant), and
the local authority (unless it is the complainant).

In this section "appropriate judicial authority" has the same meaning as in section 136H.

About this text

This legislation text comes from legislation.gov.uk. Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. These source and reuse terms cover the legislation text, not Remedy's commentary.

Reuse reviewed 21 August 2026 under Open Government Licence v3.0.