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Section 281: Alteration of penalties for other summary offences

Criminal Justice Act 2003 · 2003 c. 44View on legislation.gov.uk

Part 12: Sentencing — Chapter 8: Other provisions about sentencing

Subsection (2) applies to any summary offence which—

is an offence under a relevant enactment,
is punishable with a maximum term of imprisonment of five months or less, and
is not listed in Schedule 25 or Schedule 26.

The Secretary of State may by order amend any relevant enactment so as to—

provide that any summary offence to which this subsection applies is no longer punishable with imprisonment, or
increase to 51 weeks the maximum term of imprisonment to which a person is liable on conviction of the offence.

An order under subsection (2) may make such supplementary, incidental or consequential provision as the Secretary of State considers necessary or expedient, including provision amending any relevant enactment.

Subsection (5) applies to any summary offence which—

is an offence under a relevant enactment, and
is punishable with a maximum term of imprisonment of six months.

The maximum term of imprisonment to which a person is liable on conviction of an offence to which this subsection applies is, by virtue of this subsection, 51 weeks (and the relevant enactment in question is to be read as if it had been amended accordingly).

Neither of the following—

an order under subsection (2), or
subsection (5),

affects the penalty for any offence committed before the commencement of that order or subsection (as the case may be).

In this section and section 282 "relevant enactment" means any enactment contained in—

an Act passed before or in the same Session as this Act, or
any subordinate legislation made before the passing of this Act.

In subsection (7) "subordinate legislation" has the same meaning as in the Interpretation Act 1978 (c. 30).

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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.