Section 3: Sexual assault

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

Part 1: Sexual Offences

A person (A) commits an offence if—

he intentionally touches another person (B),
the touching is sexual,
B does not consent to the touching, and
A does not reasonably believe that B consents.

Whether a belief is reasonable is to be determined having regard to all the circumstances, including any steps A has taken to ascertain whether B consents.

Sections 75 and 76 apply to an offence under this section.

A person guilty of an offence under this section is liable—

on summary conviction, to imprisonment for a term not exceeding 6 months or a fine not exceeding the statutory maximum or both;
on conviction on indictment, to imprisonment for a term not exceeding 10 years.

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.